a

and was passed without much opposition. It gave a house of 105 members.

Intelligence of the defeat of the American army under Gen. St. Clair, by the Western Indians, near the Ohio river, which had occurred in November, was received by the president in December, and communicated to congress. In accordance with a report of the secretary of war, a bill, providing for the prosecution of the war, and proposing to raise an additional military force, was introduced into the house of representatives, and passed, though not without a vigorous opposition. It was argued that the war was unjust; the hostility of the Indians having been instigated by the British, who were still permitted to occupy the western posts, and by the citizens of the United States having transcended their proper boundaries. Let these causes be removed, and hostilities would cease. Not the least objection to the war was the additional draft upon the treasury, and the consequent increase of taxes which it would occasion. A prosecution of the war was said to be unnecessary. Peace could be obtained in some other way, and at much less expense. But, conceding its necessity, the force which had been already authorized, would, when raised, be sufficient without the additional regiments proposed by the bill.

On the other side it was alleged, that the war had been undertaken simply to defend our citizens on the frontiers. Since 1783, more than two thousand persons had been massacred or carried into captivity. Treaties of peace had been proposed, but the Indians had refused to treat. Nor could they be pacified by repurchasing their lands. War would again break out, and force must at last be employed to obtain a permanent peace. Averse as the people were to taxes, they would regard money as of little value in comparison with the lives of their fellowcitizens. And it would be more economical, by a competent force, at

. once to terminate the contest, than to protract hostilities by a weaker army.

Gen. St. Clair having resigned the command of the army, Gen. Wayne was appointed to succeed him. The final defeat of the Indians did not take place until nearly two years after.

The secretary of the treasury having been called on by the house to report the ways and means of meeting the additional demands upon the treasury which would be occasioned by the war, recommended an increase of duties; and a new tariff act, conforming in most of its details, to the secretary's report, was passed. By this act, a discrimination was made in favor of certain articles with a view to the encouragement of American industry. The excise act being unpopular in some sections of the union, the duty on domestic spirits was somewhat diminished, and increased on those imported.

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 providing more effectually for the public defense, by establishing a uniform militia system; for authorizing the president, in case of invasion or insurrection, to call forth the militia ; 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.

On the 8th of May, congress adjourned to the first Monday of November

CHAPTER VII.

OPPOSITION TO WASHINGTON'S ADMINISTRATION. —DIFFERENCES BETWEEN

SECRETARIES JEFFERSON AND HAMILTON.-WHISKY INSURRECTION.
FUGITIVE LAW.-CONSTITUTION AMENDED.

istration,

The ground of controversy between the two parties had now become essentially changed. The constitution was rapidly increasing in the popular favor. The minority had withdrawn chiefly their opposition from its original objects, and were now directing it against the administration. Unwilling longer to bear a name which implied hostility to the constitution, they renounced the name of " anti-federalists,” and assumed that of “ republicans.” Of this party, Mr. Jefferson had become the leader. Mr. Hamilton, the author of the leading measures of the admin

was considered the head of the other. The asperity of the parties had been greatly sharpened by the personal enmity known to subsist between their respective leaders. This enmity has been attributed to several causes. These gentlemen differed widely in their views of government. Mr. Jefferson's regard for popular rights is well known. His jealousy of the encroachments of power was perhaps indulged to an extreme. The correctness of the following portraiture of these two political champions, drawn by Hildreth, will probably be generally admitted.

" Jefferson had returned from France, strengthened and confirmed by his residence and associations there, in those theoretical ideas of liberty and equality to which he had given utterance in the declaration of inde

.

pendence. During his residence in Europe, as well as pending the revolutionary struggle, his attention seems to have been almost exclusively directed toward abuses of power. Hence his political philosophy was almost entirely negative—its sum total seeming to be the reduction of the exercise of authority within the narrowest possible limits, even at the risk of depriving government of its ability for good as well as for evil; a theory extremely well suited to place him at the head of those who, for various reasons, wished to restrict, as far as might be, the authority of the new federal government.

“Though himself separated from the mass of the people, by elegance of manners, refined taste, and especially by philosophical opinions on the subject of religion, in political affairs Jefferson was disposed to allow a controlling, indeed absolute authority to the popular judgment. The many he thought to be always more honest and disinterested, and in questions where the public interests were concerned, more wise than the few, who might always be suspected of having private purposes to serve. Hence he was ever ready to allow even his most cherished principles to drop into silence the moment he found them in conflict with the popular current. To sympathize with popular passions, seemed to be his test of patriotism; to sail before the wind as a popular favorite, the great object of his ambition; and it was under the character of a condescending friend of the people that he rose first at the head of a party, and then the chief magistrate of the nation."

“Much less of a scholar or a speculatist than either Jefferson or Adams, but a sagacious observer of mankind, and possessed of practical talents of the highest order, Hamilton's theory of government seems to have been almost entirely founded on what had passed under his own observation during the war of the revolution, and subsequently, previous to the adoption of the new constitution. As Washington's confidential aid-decamp, and as a member of the continental congress, after the

peace,

he had become very strongly impressed with the impossibility of providing for the public good, especially in times of war and danger, except by a government vested with ample powers, and possessing means for putting those powers into vigorous exercise. To give due strength to a government, it was necessary, in his opinion, not only to invest it on paper with sufficient legal authority, but to attach the most wealthy and influential part of the community to it by the ties of personal and pecuniary advantage; for, though himself remarkably disinterested, acting under the exalted sense of personal honor and patriotic duty, Hamilton was inclined, like many other men in the world, to ascribe to motives of pecuniary and personal interest a somewhat greater influence than they actually possess. Having but little confidence either in the virtue or the judgment of the

a

national bank,

mass of mankind, he thought the administration of affairs most safe in the hands of a select few. Nor in private conversation did he disguise his opinion that, to save her liberties from attack or intestine commotions, America might yet be driven into serious alterations of her constitution, giving to it more of a monarchical and aristocratical cast. He had the sagacity to perceive, what subsequent experience has abundantly confirmed, that the union had rather to dread resistance of the states to federal

power, than executive usurpation; but he was certainly mistaken in supposing that a president and senate for life, or good behavior, such as he had suggested in the federal convention, could have given any additional strength to the government. That strength, under all elective systems, must depend on public confidence; and public confidence is best tested and secured by frequent appeals to the popular vote."

Admitting these gentlemen to have possessed an ordinary share of human fallibility, a material cause of their mutual hatred might be found in their political rivalry. Identified with those measures which had contributed so largely to the popularity of the administration, Hamilton was regarded with jealousy by other aspirants. Hence the disposition to disparage these measures, and to asperse their supporters. The funding system, the assumption of the state debts, the excise, and the

were denounced as corrupt attempts to gain friends to their author, and as intended to pave the way toward an aristocracy and a monarchy. And, as is too often the case in warm political controversies, the most patriotic supporters of the administration were accused of having been drawn into the interests of the secretary, by the hope of a participation in the profits of the trade in the public stocks created by his policy

. Newspapers enlisted in the contest, and increased the virulence of parties. At the seat of government (Philadelphia) was Fenno's United States Gazette, the special organ of the secretary of the treasury and his friends. The National Gazette was the medium selected by the opposition, or rather had been established for this purpose, and, as was alleged

, under the auspices of the secretary of state; its editor, Philip Freneau, a Frenchman, having about the same time been appointed translating clerk in the state department.

The disagreement between the heads of the state and treasury departments had acquired such magnitude, and had so great an influence in widening the division of parties, as to deserve notice in this place. Gen. Washington,

having intimated an intention not to be a candidate

urged by numerous friends to consent to serve a second term. Having, after the close of the session of congress, retired to Mt. Vernon, for temporary relief from the cares of public business

, Mr. Jefferson addressed him a letter, soliciting him to relinquish his

a

for reëlection, was

intention to retire; assigning as a reason the divided state of the public mind in relation to the policy of his administration. The letter mentions several causes of dissatisfaction among the people. The public debt was alleged to be greater than was necessary, a part of it having been “artificially created," in consequence of which we have been already obliged," he said, “ to strain the impost titi it produces clamor, and will produce evasion, and war on our citizens to collect it, and even to resort to an excise law, of odious character with the people, partial in its operation, and unproductive, unless enforced by arbitrary and vexatious means.

The people complained also that so much of the public debt had "been made irredeemable, but in small portions, and in long terms." But for this, it might be paid in two-thirds of the time. " This irredeemable quality was given to it for the avowed purpose of inviting its transfer to foreign countries,” whither three millions of dollars of coin must be annually transported to pay interest. “They think that the ten or twelve per cent. annual profits paid to the lenders of this paper medium, are taken out of the pockets of the people, who would have had without interest the coin it is banishing; that all the capital employed in paper speculation is barren and useless, and is withdrawn from commerce and agriculture, where it would have produced an addition to the common mass; that it nourishes in our citizens habits of vice and idleness, instead of industry and morality; that it has furnished effectual means of corrupting such a portion of the legislature as turns the balance between the honest voters, whichever way it is directed; that this corrupt squadron deciding the voice of the legislature, have manifested their disposition to get rid of the limitations imposed by the constitution on the general legislature, limitations on the faith of which the states acceded to that instrument; that the ultimate object of all this is to prepare the way for a change from the present republican form of government to that of a monarchy, of which the English constitution is to be the model.

“Of all the mischiefs objected to the system of measures before mentioned, none is so afflicting and fatal to every honest hope, as the corruption of the legislature. As it was the earliest of these measures, it became the instrument for producing the rest, and will be the instrument for producing in future a king, lords, and commons, or whatever else those who direct it may choose.

" The only hope of safety hangs now on the numerous representation which is to come forward the ensuing year. Some of the new members will probably be either in principle or interest with the present majority. But it is expected that the great mass will form an accession to the republican party.

But should the majority of the new mem.