change, in favor of a person more agreeable to hin, by the apprehension, that the discountenance of the Senate might frustrate the attempt, and bring discredit upon himself. Those who can best e-timate the value of a steady administration, will be most disposed to prize a provision which connects the official existence of public men with the approbation or disapprobation of that body, which, from the greater permanency of its own

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As the government was now organized, Washington, toward the close of September, made his official appointments.* Thomas Jefferson was appointed to the post of Secretary of State. He was about to return from

to inconstancy than any other member of the government."

While the House was debating the power of removal, the Senate was engaged in forming the judiciary. Ellsworth was chairman of the committee which prepared the bill establishing the Supreme Court and the Circuit and District Courts. The States were divided into circuits, in each of which one of the Supreme Court justices and the district judge of the State constituted the circuit court, until the regular court was held. This court had original jurisdiction in certain cases, and to it appeal was made from the district court. The Supreme Court was to be composed of a chief justice with five associate justices, and was to hold two sessions annually. In certain cases this court had exclusive jurisdiction and appellate jurisdiction from the circuit courts, and also from the State courts, whenever the validity of treaties or of the laws of the United States was involved.*

sented the newly formed government, but did not reach the United States much before the close of the year.t Evidently he did not wish to undertake any further public service at this time, for he had been away from the country a number of years and longed for retirement in which to continue his studies. He said in a letter:

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This appointment, I received with real regret. My wish had been to return to Paris, where I had left my household establishment, as if there myself; and to see the end of the Revolution, which I then thought would be certainly and happily closed in less than a year. I then meant to return home, to withdraw from political life, into which I had been impressed by the circumstances of the times, to sink into the bosom of my family and friends, and devote myself to studies more congenial to my mind. In my answer I expressed these dispositions candidly to the president, and my preference of a return to Paris: but assured him that if it was believed I could be more useful in the administration of the government, I would sacrifice my own inclinations without hesitation, and repair to that destination; this I left to his decision. At Monticello, I received a second letter from the president, expressing his continued wish that I should take my station there, but leaving me still at liberty to continue in my former office, if I could not reconcile myself to that now proposed. This silenced my reluctance, and I accepted the new appointment."

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At the head of the Treasury Department Washington placed Alexander Hamilton, because in him the President recognized great ability, particularly in the handling of financial affairs. At the head of the War Department was General Knox, whose services during the war especially fitted him for this post.‡ Edmund Randolph was chosen Attorney-General for his great reputation as a lawyer and the rank he had attained by his services as governor of Virginia, in the Federal Convention, and in the convention that ratified the Constitution. These men formed Washington's first cabinet. For Chief Justice of the United States, the President's choice fell upon John Jays for his well known ability, integrity, patriotism, and high moral character.¶ In appointing him, Washington said: "I have full confidence that the love which you bear to our country, and a

* Ford's ed. of Jefferson's Writings, vol. v., pp. 139, 140-141, 143, 148, 149, 151; Ford's ed. of Washington's Writings, vol. xi., pp. 439-467; Morse, Thomas Jefferson, p. 97; Parton, Life of Thomas Jefferson, pp. 343–347. Jefferson occupied a house at 57 Maiden Lane; Hamilton lived in Pine Street.

Lodge, George Washington, vol. ii., p. 65; A. S. Bolles, Financial History of the United States, 1789-1860, chap. i.: Gibbs, Administrations of Washington and Adams, vol. i., p. 28.

Brooks, Life of Knox, p. 212; Lodge, George Washington, vol. ii., p. 64.

Lodge, George Washington, vol. ii., pp. 63–64. See also the various letters regarding this appointment in Conway, Edmund Randolph, p. 126 et seq. & Pellew, John Jay, p. 263. Schouler, United States, vol. i., p. 121.

ness, will not suffer you to hesitate a moment to bring into action the talents, knowledge, and integrity, which are so necessary to be exercised at the head of that department, which must be considered the keystone of our political fabric."'*

During the first session of the First Congress, the attention of the House was called to the numerous amendments to the Constitution which had been suggested by the State conventions when the Constitution was ratified. In all, there was over a hundred such amendments, but as many were repetitions, not more than fifty or sixty demanded consideration. Marshall says:

"To meet the various ideas expressed by the several States Conventions; to select from the mass of alterations which they had proposed, those which might be adopted without stripping the government of its necessary powers; to condense them into a form and compass which would be acceptable to persons disposed to indulge the caprice, and to adopt the language of their particular States; were labors not easily to be accomplished."

These various amendments, on being introduced by Madison, were referred to a committee. After a long debate in the committee, seventeen were submitted to the House and adopted by a large majority. The Senate, however, reduced the number

*Sparks, Life of Washington, pp. 417-418.

Madison says there were 126 suggested amendments, divided among the States as follows: Massachusetts, 9; New Hampshire, 12; New York, 33; Rhode Island, 21; Virginia, 20; North Carolina, 26; South Carolina, 5. Madison's Works (Congress ed.), vol. iv., p. 129.

to twelve, which were sent to the various legislatures for approval; and in due time ten were ratified by the constitutional majority of the States.* The two rejected related to the ratio of representation in the House and to the compensation for the members of Congress.†

The chief purport of these amend ments was the annexation to the Constitution of a more specific bill of rights. By them were secured to the people freedom of religion, of speech and of the press; the right of petition; the private right to bear arms; immunity from unreasonable search or seizure, arbitrary arrest, the taking of private property without just compensation, and the quartering of soldiers in private houses. Excessive bail, excessive fines, and excessive imprisonment were prohibited; and the right of trial by jury was most positively guaranteed. To the States respectively, " or to the people," were expressly reserved all the powers not delegated to the United States, nor prohibited to the States by the Constitution.

That these harmonizing amendments were needed as an assurance of public faith is manifest not only from

*Bassett, Federalist System, p. 22; Gay, Life of Madison, pp. 145-146; Madison's Works (Congress ed.), vol. i., p. 497 et seq. The text of these amendments will be found in vol. iii., p. 504 of this history. For a discussion of them, see Curtis, Constitutional History, vol. ii., pp. 152-166.

Hunt, Life of Madison, pp. 176-177. For the debates on the amendments, see Annals of Congress, 1st Congress, 1st session, vol. i., pp. 424450, 660-665, 703-762, 768-773.

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Washington's utterances, but also from the promptness with which the amendments were ratified were ratified by the States, for before 1791 ten of the twelve amendments had become part of the fundamental law of the nation. It was here that the Federalists made their first notable error. While the propositions were pending in Congress, they tried in every way to thwart and delay action; " and here was manifested that obliquity of political vision in talented chieftains which marked the Federalist party for division and early ruin."*

When Washington assumed office the affairs of the country were in a poor state. The excitement caused by the discussions over the ratification of the Constitution had not yet wholly subsided. The treasury was completely exhausted, while debts were pressing heavily from all quarters. Adams says:

"The Constitution itself, had been extorted from the grinding necessity of a reluctant nation. The people only of eleven of the thirteen primitive states had sanctioned it by their adoption. A stubborn, unyielding resistance against its adoption, had manifested itself in some of the most powerful states in the Union, and when overpowered by small majorities in their Conventions, had struggled in some instances successfully, to recover their ascendancy, by electing to both Houses of Congress members who had signalized themselves in opposition to the adoption of the Constitution. A sullen, embittered, exasperated spirit was boiling in the bosoms of the defeated, then styled anti-Federal party, whose rallying cry was state rights-state sovereignty-state independence. To this standard, no small number even of the ardent and distinguished patriots of the Revolution, had attached themselves with partial affection. State sovereignty, unlimited state

* Schouler, United States, vol. i., p. 115.

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as

sovereignty, amenable not to the authority of the Union, but only to the people of the disunited state itself, had, with the left-handed wisdom characteristic of faction, assumed the mask of liberty, pranked herself out in the garb of patriotism, and courted the popular favor in each state, by appeals to their separate independence; affecting to style themselves exclusively Republicans, and stigmatizing the Federalists, and even Washington himself, their head, monarchists and tories. On the other hand, no small number of the Federalists, sickened by the wretched and ignominious failure of the Articles of Confederation to fulfill the promise of the Revolution; provoked at once and discouraged by the violence and rancor of the opposition against their strenuous and toilsome endeavors to raise their country from her state of prostration; chafed and goaded by the misrepresentations of their motives, and the reproaches of their adversaries, and imputing to them in turn, deliberate and settled purposes to dissolve the Union, and resort to anarchy for the repair of ruined fortunes; distrusted even the efficacy of the Constitution itself, and, with a weakened confidence in the virtue of the people, were inclining to the opinion, that the only practicable substitute for it, would be a government of greater energy than that presented by the Convention. There were among them numerous warm and sincere admirers of the British Constitution; disposed to confide rather to the inherent strength of the government, than to the self-evident truths of the Declaration of Independence, for the preservation of the rights of property, and perhaps of persons; and with these discordant feelings and antagonizing opinions, were intermingled on both sides individual interests and ambitions, counteracting each other, as in the conduct and management of human affairs they always have and always will; not without a silent and secret mixture of collateral motives and

impulses, from the domestic intercourse of society, for which the legislator is not competent to provide, and the effect of which not intuition itself can foresee." *

Still there were many points of dispute. The times were too near the trying war to have eliminated the old grudges and jealousies, and England was not in a conciliatory mood; while,

*Jubilee of the Constitution, pp. 55-57.

on the other hand, many of the Americans, regarding England as this country's natural enemy, were ready to take offence on the slightest provocation and were eager for a chance to retaliate. Up to this time the British government had refused to negotiate a commercial treaty on favorable terms, interposing restrictions on American trade with British possessions very detrimental to the commercial interests of the United States. It was thought also that Great Britain had secretly used her influence to prevent the consummation of a commercial treaty with Portugal. To the secret machinations of the same power was attributed much of the trouble experienced at the hands of the Barbary corsairs. It was believed, moreover, that the British officials in Canada were inciting the Indians along the western borders to make inroads on the American settlements - a belief which caused a constant state of alarm in the West, where the army of the United States was insufficient to maintain order.

The relations with France, however, were most friendly, and there was a general disposition to encourage commercial intercourse with that nation in preference to England. Most of the other European powers, too, were on friendly terms with the United States. A treaty had been concluded with the Emperor of Morocco, but Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli still continued to plunder American merchantmen and enslave all the unfortunate