the French and English to terms, it was the subject of their ridicule, while it was becoming more and more ruinous to the nation.

In the mean while the sixth presidential election had taken place, and Mr. Madison had been chosen to fill the executive chair. Three days before the close of Jefferson's administration, on the 27th of February, 1809, the arbitrary act, which had been forced upon the country without a moment's warning, and which had brought ruin upon thousands, was repealed. By the death of Mr. Sullivan in the preceding December, Levi Lincoln, the lieutenant governor, became the chief magistrate of Massachusetts. At this time the executive Council was composed entirely of federalists, and there were federal majorities in both branches of the legislature. In his speech to the legislature, at the January session, Lieutenant Governor Lincoln noticed the event which had made it his duty to address that assembly; and in its reply, the House spoke in high terms of the deceased chief magistrate, saying that he, "in the discharge of his high and important trust, appeared rather desirous to be the governor of Massachusetts than the leader of a party, or the vindictive champion of its cause." Mr. Lincoln was a devoted partisan of Jefferson, and as such, sought to introduce a more stringent system of policy. He condemned every public remonstrance against the embargo as seditious and uncalled for, and took an extraordinary course to suppress them. But, as has already been noticed, the effect of the embargo, and the tyrannical measures adopted to enforce it, the poverty and distress which were daily increasing, compelled the citizens to investigate causes, and to think for themselves.

In April, 1809, Christopher Gore was the federal candidate for the office of governor, and was elected. The embargo

having been removed, and the busy citizens of Massachusetts having engaged in their accustomed vocations; and thinking more of these, than of political dangers and duties, an opportunity was again afforded for the "friends of the people" to take a majority into their custody. By the democratic party, once more the triumphant party in the state, Elbridge Gerry was nominated and elected governor of Massachusetts. He held his office from May, 1810, to May, 1812; and the result of his election was deemed an indorsement of the policy of Madison.

CHAPTER XX.

THE WAR OF 1812.

AT the time when Elbridge Gerry became chief magistrate of Massachusetts, intelligent statesmen were demurring at the policy of the general government, and were confidently predicting a war with England. The people, of course, deprecated such an event, and these same statesmen believed that, under the guidance of a prudent and magnanimous spirit, the difficulties existing between the two governments might be amicably adjusted.

Governor Gerry was a democrat, and in both branches of the General Court the majorities were democratic; furthermore, both the executive and the legislature were harmonious in purpose. Mr. Gerry's first act was, in pursuance of the Jeffersonian system, to remove from office many who had long and faithfully served the commonwealth. The cause of such removals was simply that these incumbents were not of the dominant party. The County Courts were organized anew; the appointment of clerks of the judicial courts was vested in the governor, instead of in the judges; and minor offices were filled by the governor's political friends. In January, 1812, Mr. Gerry openly accused the federal party" of being anti-republican in its principles, and opposed to the measures of the general government." "Are we not called upon," said he, "to decide whether we will commit the liberty and independence of ourselves and pos

terity to the fidelity and protection of a national adminis tration, at the head of which is a Madison, supported by an executive department, a Senate, and a House of Repre sentatives abounding with revolutionary and other meritorious patriots, or to a British administration, the disciples of Bute, who was the author of a plan to enslave these states, and to American royalists who co-operated with that government to bind us in chains while colonists? Is it not. morally and politically impossible that a doubt can exist in regard to the choice?" 1

In the following month the governor sent a still more extraordinary message to the legislature, commenting on the severe remarks of the public press with reference to his own conduct and the policy of the national government. After the reading of the message, a member of the senate arose, and offered a resolutlon, "that the governor, in denouncing various publications in the Boston newspapers as libels, especially after a grand jury, upon an examination of some of those publications, had refused to find bills of indictment, manifests an alarming disposition to usurp the power belonging to the judicial department, tending to criminate and injure the reputation of individuals, without affording them an opportunity of defence; and that the employing of the law officers of the commonwealth in examining files of newspapers for the purpose of collecting and divesting such publications, with a view of presenting them to the legislature instead of to a grand jury, is a departure from his constitutional province, and an infringement upon private rights." 2

In the midst of the excitement, a new gubernational election took place, which resulted in the choice of Caleb Strong 2 Boston Centinel for 1812.

1 Message of Jan. 8, 1812.

by a very small majority. It has been said that "it is possible that the conduct of Mr. Gerry, in districting the state for the election of senators, had some influence on the popular vote; and it was alleged that the division thus made, which the federalists christened with the name of 'Gerrymandering,' was new and arbitrary,' and was 'designed to secure the triumph of the republican party.""1 So far as the Senate was concerned, it had this effect; but a majority of the House was of the federal party.

When, after the revolutionary strife, John Adams arrived in England as the minister plenipotentiary of the United States, he was graciously received, and affected almost to tears, by the honest words of King George: "I was the last man in the kingdom, sir, to consent to the independence of America; but now it is granted, I shall be the last man in the world to sanction a violation of it." Mr. Jefferson had faithfully cherished all the causes of controversy with Great Britain, and by refusing to enter into a compromise, had made the breach wider. the breach wider. These causes of controversy were, briefly, the colonial trade; the blockades by England; the affair of the Chesapeake; the impressment of seamen from American merchant vessels, and the Orders of the King in Council. In March, 1809, when Mr. Madison became president, and in June, 1812, when war was declared, England sincerely desired to avoid a conflict; but the administration was disposed otherwise; and even Lloyd, who had taken the place of John Quincy Adams in the United States Senate, declared, as the voice of Massachusetts, in favor of rigorous measures.2

1 Barry, iii. 369.

2 See Lloyd's Speech in Annals of Congress, 12 Cong., 1st series, 1. 131-147.