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THE BOSTON REMONSTRANCE.

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* Conway, Edmund Randolph, p. 295. See also Hunt, Life of Madison, p. 228.

McMaster, vol. ii., p. 216; Lodge, vol. ii., pp. 182-183.

John Beckley wrote to Madison about this time as follows: "You can have no idea how deeply the public confidence is withdrawing itself from the President, and with what avidity strictures on his conduct are received; sensible of this, his friends are redoubling their efforts to exalt his name and exaggerate his past services. But all in vain, the vital blow aimed at the Independence & best Interests of his country by the impending treaty, mark him in indelible characters as the head of a British faction, and gratitude no longer blinds the public mind." Hunt, Life of James Madison, p. 230.

See

Writing to Robert R. Livingston, August 10, 1795, Madison says: "You will see by the Newspapers that the City of Richmond has trodden

for Great Britain was extreme, and the appearance of an Englishman invariably provoked some insult or other. On July 8 the selectmen of Boston summoned a meeting of the town people at Fanueil Hall to consider the treaty. This meeting was held on the 10th and was attended by upward of 1,500 men. When a vote was taken to ascertain whether the citizens of the town approved of the treaty, not a hand was raised in the affirmative the meeting was unanimous in condemning it. A committee of 15 was therefore chosen to draft an address to Washington and a list of 20 objections was drawn up and sent to him.* To this remonstrance Washington answered as follows:

in the steps of the other Cities by an unanimous address to the President. How far the other Towns and Counties will imitate Richmond is uncertain. If they should be silent, it will assuredly be the effect, in the former, of a supposed notoriety of their harmony in opposition; and in the latter, to the same cause, added to the dispersed situation of the people. I think it is certain that there is not a Town or County in this State, except, perhaps, Alexandria, where an appeal to the inhabitants would be attended with any show of opposition. With respect

*

to the President, his situation must be a most delicate one for himself as well as for his Country; and there never was, as you observe, a crisis where the friends of both ought to feel more solicitude, or less reserve. At the same time, ! have reasons, which I think good, for doubting the propriety, and of course utility, of uninvited communications from myself. He cannot, I am persuaded, be a stranger to my opinion on the merits of the Treaty; and I am equally persuaded that the state of the public opinion within my sphere of information will sufficiently force itself on his attention."- Madison's Works (Congress ed.), vol. ii., p. 46. For Madison's objections to the treaty, see ibid, pp. 46–59.

* McMaster, vol. ii., pp. 216–218.

WASHINGTON'S REPLY; THE NEW YORK MEETING.

"TO THE SELECTMEN OF THE TOWN OF BOSTON. UNITED STATES, 28th July, 1795. "GENTLEMEN: In every act of my administration I have sought the happiness of my fellowcitizens. My system for the attainment of this object has uniformly been to overlook all personal, local, and partial considerations; to contemplate the United States as one great whole; to consider that sudden impressions, when erroneous, would yield to candid reflection; and to consult only the substantial and permanent interests of our country.

"Nor have I departed from this line of conduct on the occasion which has produced the resolutions contained in your letter of the 13th inst.

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'Without a predilection for my own judgment, I have weighed with attention every argument which has at any time been brought into view. But the Constitution is the guide which I never can abandon. It has assigned to the President the power of making treaties with the advice and consent of the Senate. It was doubtless supposed that these two branches of government would combine, without passion and with the best means of information, those facts and principles upon which the success of our foreign relations will always depend; that they ought not to substitute for their own conviction the opinions of others, or to seek truth through any channel but that of a temperate and well informed investiga

tion.

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* See Sparks, Life of Washington, pp. 465-466; Sparks' ed. of Washington's Writings, vol. xi., p. 2; Lodge, George Washington, vol. ii., pp. 186-187. "The ratification of Jay's treaty," as J. Q. Adams forcibly says, "brought on the severest trial which the character of Washington, and the fortunes of our nation have ever passed through. No period of the war of independence, no other emergency of our history since its close, nor even the ordeal of establishing the Constitution of

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Meanwhile news of the Faneuil Hall meeting reached New York and created no little excitement. A call was inserted in the newspapers for a town meeting to be held at Federal Hall, Saturday, July 16, and when that day arrived a huge crowd gathered in front of the hall. On the night before, Rufus King and Alexander Hamilton had drawn up an address to the people, and when the meeting assembled Hamilton began to address the crowd. But the people cut short his speech with calls for a chairman, and, before Hamilton would be allowed to continue, William Smith was elected to that post. Peter Livingston then attempted to speak, but Hamilton broke in and appealed to the chairman, who in turn referred the matter to the meeting. The crowd decided in favor of Livingston and immediately disorder set in. Finally Livingston made himself heard and demanded a vote on the treaty, requesting those who favored it to go to the left and those who opposed it to the right. A large crowd went to the

the United States itself, has convulsed to its inmost fibres, the political association of the North American people with such excruciating agonies, as the consummation and fulfilment of this great national composition of the conflicting rights, interests, and pretensions of our country and of Great Britain. The party strife in which it originated, and to which it gave birth, is not yet appeased. From this trial, Washington himself, his fame, the peace, union, and prosperity of his country, have issued triumphant and secure. But it prepared the way for the reversal of some of the principles of his administration, and for the introduction of another and widely different system six years after, in the person of Thomas Jefferson."― Jubilee of the Constitution, p. 97.

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OPPOSITION TO THE TREATY.

left; but, as many stood their ground, Hamilton urged a full and free discussion. It was said that the time for discussion was past and a decision. must be made at once. It was suggested that the street was no place for debate, and the crowd was requested to adjourn to a nearby church where Hamilton's arguments could be reviewed. A large party of those who opposed the treaty, now finding the meeting in disorder, went to the Battery and there burned copies of the treaty. On their return, they stoned Hamilton and threw the meeting into still greater confusion.* After remarking, “If you use such striking arguments, I must retire," Hamilton left the meeting, and a committee of 15 was chosen to draft a set of resolutions condemning the treaty. On the 20th the adjourned meeting again assembled and received and approved twenty-eight long reasons for condemning the work of Mr. Jay.‡

The Republicans now hurled all manner of insults at the British flag and at Jay, who was accused of selling his country for British gold. The toasts drunk were offered to the eternal damnation of Jay and his treaty, the Society of Cincinnati at Newcastle, Delaware, expressing the hope that Jay might enjoy all the pleasures

*Lamb, City of New York, vol. ii., pp. 411-412; Lodge, George Washington, vol. ii., p. 184; Sumner, Life of Alexander Hamilton, p. 216.

Lodge, Alexander Hamilton, p. 190.
McMaster, vol. ii., pp. 218-221.

of purgatory.. of purgatory.

A rude transparency

of Jay was carried through the streets of Philadelphia. This transparency bore a figure of Jay in his long robe of the Chief-Justiceship; his right hand held a balance, one scale of which, inscribed "American liberty and independence," kicked the beam, while "British gold " bore down the other. With his left hand he extended the treaty scroll to a group of Senators. From his mouth came came the words "Come up to my price, and I will sell you my country!" In the evening this effigy was burned at Kensington amid the shouts of the people. At Savannah, Georgia, an effigy of Jay was hung up and burned on the gallows on the Old South Commons. At Charleston, South Carolina, all flags were placed at half mast, copies of the treaty were burned by the hangmen near the Old Market in Broad Street, and later a mob dragged the British flag through the streets and burned it in front of the English conhimself conspicuous by a violent sul's house. John Rutledge made harangue, in which he charged Jay with being either a fool or a knave.

*It is related that about the inclosure of Robert Treat Paine the following words were chalked in large white letters: "Damn John Jay! Damn every one that won't damn John Jay!! Damn every one that won't put lights in his windows and sit up all night damning John Jay!!!”— Pellew, John Jay, pp. 315-316. See also D. S. Alexander, Political History of the State of New York, vol. i., p. 65 (1906).

Schouler, United States, vol. i., p. 311; Lossing, Field-Book of the War of 1812, p. 57. McMaster, vol. ii., pp. 222–224.

ADDRESSES AND MEMORIALS.

Considering that Rutledge had just been nominated Chief Justice to succeed Jay, this was certainly strange language. Doubts were raised as to his sanity, and his injudicious speech eventually resulted in his rejection by the Senate-a a mortfication which Rutledge did not long survive.* At Philadelphia a meeting was held on July 23 at which the treaty was denounced and a committee of 15 appointed to draft a memorial to the President. On the 25th the meeting reconvened, nearly 6,000 men being present, and, after being read paragraph by paragraph, the memorial was almost unanimously adopted. The chairman then recommended "that every good citizen in this assembly kick this damned treaty to hell." Copies of it were burned before the house of the British minister and consul. Similar proceedings took place elsewhere. Torrents of vituperation were poured forth; Catos and other great names of ancient days again appeared upon earth, lamenting the degeneracy of their country, and showing by statistical calculations the amount of

* Schouler, United States, vol. i., p. 311. McMaster, vol. ii., pp. 224–225. Lossing quotes a Richmond paper of July 31, 1795, as follows: "Notice is hereby given that in case the treaty entered into by that damned arch-traitor, John Jay, with the British tyrant should be ratified, a petition will be presented to the next General Assembly of Virginia at the next session, praying that the said state may secede from the Union, and be under the government of one hundred thousand free and independent Virginians."-Field-Book of the War of 1812, p. 87, note.

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sacrifices and degradations it sustained; inflamed patriots addressed inflammable crowds in every section. of the country."* Addresses, resolutions, and memorials poured in upon Washington from Portsmouth, Boston, New York, Philadelphia and York, York, Baltimore, Richmond, Charleston, Savannah, Petersburg, Powhattan, and Norfolk, Va., Washington, Del., Bordentown, Flemington, Crosswicks, Reckless Town, and Blackhouse, N. J., and from Morris County and Trenton in the same State. However, the Chamber of Commerce of New York and Boston declared for the treaty, and a paper bearing the signatures of 70 Trenton citizens was sent to the President, urging that it be ratified.† Opposition was not confined to ordinary citizens, however, for among the opponents of the treaty were many who had been ardent advocates of the adoption of the Constitution, the proclamation of neutrality, etc., the number including Jefferson and Madison, Samuel

Jefferson says: "So general a burst of dissatisfaction never before appeared against any transaction. Those who understand the particular articles of it, condemn these articles. Those who do not understand them minutely condemn it generally as wearing a hostile face to France. This last is a most numerous class, comprehending the whole body of the people, who have taken a greater interest in this transaction than they were ever known to do in any other."- Letter of September 5, 1795, to James Monroe, in Ford's ed. of Jefferson's Writings, vol. vii., p. 27. See also his letter to Monroe, p. 58.

McMaster, vol. ii., p. 225 et seq.; Ford's ed. of Jefferson's Writings, vol. vii., pp. 27, 29. See also Madison's letters in Madison's Works (Congress ed.), vol. ii., pp. 43, 65.

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WASHINGTON'S OPINION.

Adams of Massachusetts, Cæsar A. Rodney and John Dickinson, of Delaware, George Wythe, of Virginia, Charles C. Pinckney and John Rutledge, of South Carolina, and others of equal calibre.*

That Washington viewed these events with deep anxiety cannot be doubted, for he was not a man to underrate popular feeling. Writing to Randolph on July 29, he said:

"I view the opposition which the treaty is receiving from the meetings in different parts of the Union in a very serious light; not because there is more weight in any of the objections which are made to it than was foreseen at first, for there is none in some of them, and gross misrepresentations in others; nor as it respects myself personally, for this shall have no influence on my conduct, plainly perceiving, and I am accordingly preparing my mind for it, the obloquy which disappointment and malice are collecting to heap upon me. But I am alarmed at the effect it may have on, and the advantage the French government may be disposed to make of, the spirit which is at work to cherish a belief in them that the treaty is calculated to favor Great Britain at their expense. To sum

the whole up in a few words I have never, since I have been in the administration of the government, seen a crisis which, in my judgment, has been so pregnant with interesting events, whether viewed on one side or the other." †

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who are of no party, but well disposed to the present administration. Nor should it be otherwise, when no stone has been left unturned that

could impress on the minds of the people the most arrant misrepresentation of facts; that their rights have not only been neglected but absolutely sold; that there are no reciprocal advantages in the treaty; that the benefits are all on the side of Great Britain; and, what seems to have had more weight with them than all the rest, and to have been most pressed, that the treaty is made with the design to oppress the French, in open violation of our treaty with that nation, and con

trary, too, to every principle of gratitude and

sound policy. In time, when passion shall have yielded to sober reason, the current may possibly turn; but, in the meanwhile, this government, in relation to France and England, may be compared to a ship between the rocks of Scylla and Charybdis. If this treaty is ratified, partisans of the French, or rather of war and confusion, will excite them to hostile measures; if it is not, there is no foreseeing all the consequences which may follow, as it respects Great Britain.

"It is not to be inferred from hence, that I am disposed to quit the ground I have taken, unless circumstances more imperious than have yet come to my knowledge, should compel it; for there is but one straight course, and that is to seek truth, and pursue it steadily. But these things are mentioned to show that a close investigation of the subject is more than ever necessary, and that there are strong evidences of the necessity of the most circumspect conduct in carrying the determination of government into effect, with prudence, as it respects our own people, and with every exertion to produce a change for the better from Great Britain.

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The memorial seems well designed to answer the end proposed, and by the time it is revised and new-addressed, you will probably (either in the resolutions which are or will be handed to me, or in the newspaper publications, which you promise to be attentive to) have seen all the objections against the treaty which have any real force in them, and which may be fit subjects for representation in a memorial, or in the instructions, or both. But how much longer the presentation of the memorial can be delayed without exciting unpleasant sensations here, or involving serious evils elsewhere, you, who are at the scene of information and action, can decide better than I. In a matter, however, so interesting, and pregnant with consequences as this treaty, there

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