Life and Times of Washington, Volume 2 / Revised, Enlarged, and Enriched

by John Frederick Schroeder; Benson John Lossing

A bill for punishing infringements of the neutrality laws and prohibiting the condemnation and sale of prizes in the ports of the United States, brought in by the belligerent powers, was suggested by Washington and reported in the Senate, where it met a violent opposition and was finally passed by the casting vote of the Vice-President. In the House of Representatives it was passed after striking out the provision relative to the sale of prizes. In maintaining his system of strict neutrality Washington had to fight every inch of the ground. The opposition omitted no means of bringing the administration into discredit. Attacks in Congress on the executive officers of the government was resorted to.

In both houses inquiries were set on foot respecting the treasury department, which obviously originated in the hope of finding some foundation for censuring Mr. Hamilton, the secretary, but which failed entirely. In a similar hope, as respected Gouverneur Morris, the minister of the United States at Paris, the Senate passed a vote requesting the President to lay before that body his correspondence with the French republic, and also with the Department of State.

As a war with Great Britain seemed inevitable should the mission of Mr. Jay prove unsuccessful, Congress did not adjourn without passing the absolutely necessary laws for putting the country in a state of defense. Provision was made for fortifying the principal harbors, and 80,000 militia were ordered to be in readiness for active service. Arms and munitions of war were allowed to be imported free of duty, and the President was authorized to purchase galleys and lay an embargo if he should deem that the public interest required it. To meet the expenses thus incurred duties were levied on a number of additional articles of importation.

On the 9th of June (1794) this active and stormy session was closed by an adjournment to the first Monday in the succeeding November.

"The public," says Marshall, "was not less agitated than the Legislature had been by those interesting questions which had occasioned some of the most animated and eloquent discussions that had ever taken place on the floor of the House of Representatives. Mr. Madison's resolutions especially continued to be the theme of general conversation, and, for a long time, divided parties throughout the United States. The struggle for public opinion was ardent, and each party supported its pretensions, not only with those arguments which each deemed conclusive, but also by those reciprocal criminations which, perhaps, each in part believed.

"The opposition declared that the friends of the administration were an aristocratic and corrupt faction, who, from a desire to introduce monarchy, were hostile to France, and under the influence of Britain; that they sought every occasion to increase expense, to augment debt, to multiply the public burdens, to create armies and navies, and, by the instrumentality of all this machinery, to govern and enslave the people; that they were a paper nobility, whose extreme sensibility at every measure which threatened the funds, induced a tame submission to injuries and insults, which the interest and the honor of the nation required them to resist.

"The friends of the administration retorted that the opposition was prepared to sacrifice the best interests of their country on the altar of the French revolution; that they were willing to go to war for French, not for American objects; that while they urged war they withheld the means of supporting it in order the more effectually to humble and disgrace the government; that they were so blinded by their passion for France as to confound crimes with meritorious deeds, and to abolish the natural distinction between virtue and vice; that the principles which they propagated and with which they sought to intoxicate the people were, in practice, incompatible with the existence of government; that they were the apostles of anarchy, not of freedom, and were, consequently, not the friends of real and rational liberty."

Immediately after the adjournment of Congress, Washington paid a short visit to Mount Vernon. On the 19th of June he writes from Baltimore to Randolph, Secretary of State, respecting the commission and letters of credence of John Quincy Adams, whom he had recently appointed minister resident to the United Netherlands. From the same place, on the same day, he writes to Gouverneur Morris, who had recently been recalled from France at the request of the revolutionary authorities, he having pretty openly expressed his disapprobation of the excesses of the party in power. Washington had appointed as his successor James Monroe, who, as senator, had uniformly opposed the measures of the administration. Such an act of magnanimity in these times would excite considerable surprise.

On the 25th of June (1794), after his arrival at Mount Vernon, Washington again writes to Gouverneur Morris, who still retained his warm friendship and confidence. Speaking of his political course, he says: "My primary objects, to which I have steadily adhered, have been to preserve the country in peace if I can, and to be prepared for war if I cannot; to effect the first upon terms consistent with the respect which is due to ourselves and with honor, justice, and good faith to all the world."

On the same day he writes to Edmund Randolph, Secretary of State: "I shall endeavor to be back by the time I allotted before I left Philadelphia, if I am able, but an exertion to save myself and horse from falling among the rocks at the lower falls of the Potomac, whither I went on Sunday morning to see the canal and locks, has wrenched my back in such a manner as to prevent my riding, and hitherto has defeated the purposes for which I came home. My stay here will only be until I can ride with ease and safety, whether I accomplish my own business or not."