JEFFERSON AND HAMILTON.

37

The personal antagonism of these men contributed greatly to augment party differences. Their theories of government were as diverse as was their natural cast of mind. Mr. Jefferson's hostility to the growing power of a central government is well known. The various financial measures of the Administration which had been adopted, were now held up as instruments for strengthening the government and aggrandizing the Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. Hamilton. The funding system, the assumption of the State debts, and the recently chartered National Bank were alike anathematized. This personal strife became of national interest. It was a great grief to General Washington, and he used all his efforts, but in vain, to reconcile the differences of these great minds, that they might work together for the common good of the country. Mr. Hamilton was strongly suspected, and not without reason, perhaps, of leanings towards a monarchical form of government. That there existed tendencies of this character at that time is not to be wondered at. The American Revolution was a war waged against the aggressions of the mother country, not against her form of government. The question at issue, dividing the people into Whigs and Tories, was resistance to oppressive measures, or submission thereto. Subsequent events resolved it into a question of entire separation. The attainment of this result put an end to the existence of the division of the people into Whigs and Tories, and created the occasion for the rise of other partiès.

In laying the foundation of a government for an empire, diversity of views would be expected. That here and there a conservative mind-distrusting the capacity of the people for self-government-should linger in the halls of monarchical power, and desire to plant the institutions of government under which he had been reared

on the soil of his adopted home, is by no means surprising. This idea was strengthened by the failure of the Continental Congress to carry on the Government. Stay-laws passed in some of the States against the collection of private debts, and "Shay's Insurrection," rising from an attempt on the part of Massachusetts to raise taxes, which at that time were severely felt by the people, likewise evinced the necessity of a General Government endowed with greater power and efficiency. Yet with all this, a desire for the establishment of a limited monarchy was restricted to a very few individuals. Mr. Hamilton introduced into the Constitutional Convention a plan of government which provided for the election of a Chief Magistrate and Senate, who were to serve during good behavior. The State Executives were to be appointed by the Chief Magistrate, and surrounded with provisions of a restrictive character. Colonel Hamilton, on the introduction of his plan, acknowledged that it did not meet his own idea of what would constitute the best form of government.

The limits prescribed for this work will not permit a lengthy investigation of the charges then and subsequently, freely made of a monarchical tendency on the part of Mr. Hamilton and those who followed his lead. Their theories, as they were brought to bear in practical application in moulding the character of the government in its formatory condition, come more directly under review. These must be gathered as the course of events proceeds, shaping the policy and directing the legislation of the government.

The opposition to the Administration, in the second Congress, retained the geographical character of the first; coming from the South, principally from Virginia and North Carolina. There were also many who adhered to

FUNDAMENTALS OF PARTY DIVISIONS.

39

neither party, voting with the one or the other as inclination or duty prompted.

The fundamentals of party divisions, at this period, rested in the financial condition in which different classes of persons and various sections of the country found themselves at the close of the Revolution, and under the organization of the Constitutional Government. At the expiration of the war the Confederacy, the several States, and private individuals also, were oppressed by great pecuniary embarrassment. Tax collectors and creditors were a constant annoyance to the small landholders who comprised the mass of the people. Out of these grievances originated large paper issues in some States, and insurrections in others. Superadded to these were, in the Southern States, the undischarged debts contracted prior to the Revolution. These considerations united the large planters of the slaveholding States and the working agriculturists of the North, elements naturally antagonistic, in hostility to the funding system and the general policy of the Federal Government. This combination of elements met the opposition of the large landed interests in the middle States, the capitalists and merchants, a large proportion of the lawyers, clergy, and the educated men of the North.

To the pecuniary elements of disagreement must be added the hatred felt toward Great Britain; which, also, was most intense among the common people, and in the Southern States, where the war existed latest and with the greatest cruelties. Sympathies for France were spontaneous, both from the aid which she had contributed in the revolutionary struggle, and from an intense desire to see her proud rival, England, humbled in the dust. Intercourse with Great Britain served to mitigate that hostile feeling which the war and the events preceding it had fostered

in the bosom of the American people, thus giving opportunity to the Anti-Federalists, or Republicans as they now termed themselves, to charge upon the Administration and its supporters sympathy with England, and a desire to favor her to the injury of France.

The Administration had a clear majority in both branches of the second Congress. About one-third of the members of the old House were returned.

A bill apportioning the representatives, according to the census of 1790, was passed at this session. The basis of 33,000 was established for each representative. This gave a House of one hundred and five members.

Laws were also passed at this session for the encouragement of fishing, by granting bounties to the owners of fishing vessels and to the fishermen; for authorizing the President, in case of invasion or insurrection, to call forth the militia; for providing more effectually for the public defence, by establishing a uniform militia system; for establishing a mint and regulating the coinage; for reorganizing the post-office; for regulating the election of President and Vice-President; and for declaring what officer shall act as President in case of vacancy in the offices of President and Vice-President.

By Act of Congress, Vermont was admitted into the Union on March 4, 1791. Kentucky became a member of the Confederacy on June 1, 1792.

Congress adjourned, on the 8th of May, to the first Monday of November.

General Washington having given a reluctant assent to serve a second term, was unanimously re-elected President. John Adams was also re-elected Vice-President, receiving 77 votes, to 50 for George Clinton. These votes were a test of Federal and Republican strength, Clinton being the candidate of the Republicans.

RE-ELECTION OF GEN. WASHINGTON.

41

The last session of the second Congress opened on the 5th of November. Financial topics were again on the tapis, and an effort was made, headed by Mr. Giles of Virginia, to censure the Secretary of the Treasury. It signally failed.

FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW.

At this session-1793-was enacted the first law for the return of fugitive slaves. It provided for the arrest of the person escaping from service or labor; his trial before a single magistrate, who, on proof, to his satisfaction, that the person seized was a fugitive, was to issue a certificate, which was a sufficient warrant for the removal of the fugitive to the State from which he had fled. Any person obstructing in any way such seizure or removal, or harboring or concealing any fugitive after notice, was liable to a penalty of $500, to be recovered by the claimant.

This act originated in the Senate, and seems to have passed the House with very little discussion. It elicited, for many years, very little public attention; but ultimately came to be regarded as an opening to the commission of great abuses, and as unconstitutional, in denying, in cases of the greatest importance, the right of trial by jury. Many of the free States asserting their own authority, enacted what have come to be known as "Personal Liberty Bills," which virtually rendered the fugitive act a dead letter.

On the 3d of March, 1793, the second Congress expired by limitation; the first term of Washington's administration terminated at the same time.

ESTABLISHMENT OF A FOREIGN POLICY.

The first administration of General Washington was devoted to the establishment of an internal policy. Atten