Washington foresaw in these violent measures no other issue than war with the mother-country, which he desired under every circumstance to avoid; and believing that the existing differences between the two countries might be brought to an amicable adjustment, resolved to make the experiment. Accordingly, Chief-Justice Jay being appointed to this important mission, embarked on May 13th, being attended to the shore by a great concourse of people, whom at parting he assured of his determination to leave no means untried for the security of the blessings of peace.
This measure being taken for pacific arrangements, congress passed acts for putting the country in a state of defence. The principal harbours were to be fortified, as we have before said, and 80,000 militia to be held in readiness for immediate service; the importation of arms was permitted free of duty, and additional taxes were levied.
About this time, the afterwards celebrated John Quincy Adams, son to the vice-president, received his first public appointment as minister at the Hague, he having already distinguished himself by certain articles in a Boston paper on Genet’s proceedings, which attracted Washington’s attention.
Hamilton, at the commencement of this year, resigned his office of Secretary of the Treasury, and was succeeded by Oliver Wolcot; and at the close of this session, General Knox having resigned, Timothy Pickering of Massachusetts was appointed Secretary of War.
Jay was successful in his mission, and early in the following year a treaty was laid before the Senate for ratification. This treaty provided that the posts which the British had retained should be given up to the Americans, and compensation made for illegal captures of American property; and the United States were to secure to the British creditor the proper means of collecting debts which had been contracted before the peace of 1783. It did not, however, prohibit the right of searching merchant vessels, and thus violated the favourite maxim of the Americans, that “free ships make free goods.” The treaty was not all that Washington himself desired; but as no better terms were to be had, he wisely resolved that, if the Senate approved of it, he would not withhold his signature.
The country was in a state of angry excitement, and ready to reject rather than accept it, even before they knew the exact terms of the treaty, while the Senate, with closed doors, were discussing it and coming gradually to the decision that it should be ratified. At this moment an imperfect copy appeared in a newspaper, and Washington then ordered it to be published.
This was like throwing a lighted brand among combustibles. The partisans of France assailed it with the utmost violence; an outcry was raised against it from one end of the Union to the other, as “a pusillanimous surrender of American rights, and a shameful breach of obligations to France.” City after city protested against it, and the popular feeling was expressing itself in acts of outrage and violence, when Washington, with the prompt decision of a wise governor, after protesting and remonstrating against such clauses of the treaty as he considered injurious to the American interests, settled the question by attaching his signature to the treaty. “As regards this treaty,” says Jared Sparkes in his Life of Washington, “time disappointed its enemies and more than satisfied its friends. It saved the country from a war, improved its commerce, and served in no small degree to lay the foundation of its durable prosperity. The great points which were said to be sacrificed or neglected—the impressment of seamen, neutral rights and colonial trade—have never yet been settled, and are never likely to be settled while England maintains the ascendancy she now holds on the ocean.”
Two other treaties were negotiated about the same time; one with Algiers, by which the commerce of the Mediterranean was opened, and the prisoners who had been in bondage for many years released; but for this was paid the large sum of 763,000 dollars, with an annual tribute in stores of 24,000 dollars, a black-mail which was paid likewise by various European nations, to secure them from the piracies of the Dey. The other treaty was with Spain. Spain had long acted towards the United States in an unfriendly manner. She was fearful lest the principles of liberty and independence which they had so successfully asserted should find their way into her contiguous provinces. She had always endeavoured that the western boundary of this so dangerous neighbour should be fixed at 300 miles east of the Mississippi, and she denied to the inhabitants west of the Alleganies access to the ocean by that great river, the mouth of which was in her province of Louisiana. At length, however, when at home she became involved in a war with France, and in America alarmed by the unauthorised preparations making in Kentucky, under the influence of Genet, to invade Louisiana, she intimated her willingness to adjust her differences with the United States by treaty. An envoy extraordinary was therefore immediately despatched to Madrid, and in October a treaty was signed, by which the western boundary of the American republic was fixed according to their own claims, the navigation of the Mississippi made free to both nations, and the American citizens allowed the privilege of landing and depositing cargoes at New Orleans.
During the recess of congress, and while the president was busied with filling up vacancies in his cabinet, the treaty with Great Britain was agitating the country, and petitions got up against it and numerously signed were presented to the House of Representatives when the fourth sitting of congress commenced. By this time, however, the offensive treaty had been ratified by his Britannic Majesty, and no other means of opposition now remained to the democratic or French party in the House of Representatives but to demand from the president the instructions by which Jay had entered into this negotiation. Washington refused to comply with this demand, asserting that the power to make treaties was vested by the Constitution solely in the president, with the advice and consent of the Senate, and that the House of Representatives had hitherto acquiesced in this mode of procedure. The malcontents were not prepared for this refusal, and the debate which it led to was carried on for many days with great eloquence as well as warmth. But even though Washington hazarded much in opposing the popular branch of the legislature, his was not a mind to be swayed by any lesser consideration from that which he knew to be the true line of duty. He believed that to yield in this instance would be to introduce a dangerous principle into the diplomatic transactions of the nation, and he was firm in his refusal.
The resolution moved in the house, to make the necessary appropriations to carry the treaty into effect, again called forth violent opposition. The people themselves now took up the subject also; meetings were held, and the strength of the two parties fully tried, until at length it was evident that the majority were in favour of the treaty. Petitions in its favour were presented to congress; and lastly, Fisher Ames, of Massachusetts, at that time just risen from his sick-bed, appeared in the house, pale, feeble, and scarcely able to stand, and spoke with such irresistible power on behalf of the treaty, that further opposition was vain. The eloquence of the sick man conquered; and the necessary laws were passed for the fulfilment of this agitated treaty.