590 FISHER AMES. [CHAP. VIII. cry of disunion was as groundless as that of war, from the known attachments of the people. All these cries were got up by way of appeal to the fears of the House. It was this same fear of being involved in war which had originated the negotiation: under the impression of fear the treaty had been negotiated and signed: and every imaginary evil was conjured up to frighten the House, and force it to carry the treaty into effect. This speech of Mr. Gallatin was specially answered by Messrs. Gilbert of New York, and Tracy of Connecticut. Gallatin had made himself peculiarly obnoxious to the Federalists, not merely by having joined the party of their opponents, but by having taken an active part in the early opposition to the excise in Pennsylvania: and though he subsequently amply redeemed this error by acknowledging it, and by his efforts to bring about submission to the laws, his present opposition to the administration prevented his first transgression from being forgotten or forgiven. It was distinctly alluded to by Mr. Tracy in the most offensive language, and his foreign origin noticed in a style as undignified as ungenerous. But the task of defending the treaty, and of inducing the House to tolerate, if they could not approve it, devolved on Fisher Ames, of Massachusetts. He had always maintained a high reputation in the House for his ability and eloquence, as well as his courtesy and liberality; but, on this occasion, he surpassed himself. He had been long laboring under a pulmonary disease, which was evidently hastening him to the grave; but his party and patriotic zeal rose superior to physical weakness, and imparted to him strength to make a speech which won reluctant praise even from his opponents, and so appealed to the personal and party sympathies of his friends, as to raise their admiration to the liveliest 1796.] AMES'S SPEECH. 591 enthusiasm. His language was in general at once classical and impassioned, and if it was occasionally more rhetorical than a severe taste could entirely approve, it was not too much so for those to whom it was addressed. He imputed the violent opposition to the treaty to the passions and prejudices against Great Britain, apparent from the repugnance to it manifested before its contents were known; and to the strong interest taken in the French nation since her revolution. Nothing, he said, that the treaty could have contained would, in this temper of the American people, have satisfied them. As to foreign influence, he showed that France possessed it in a more ample degree than Great Britain, by her strong appeal to their sympathies, and enthusiasm in favor of their revolution. He regarded the rejection of the treaty as a breach of national faith; dwelt upon the loss of five millions of dollars to the merchants for their captured property; on the renewal of Indian warfare, and the detention of the posts. He portrayed, in glowing tints, the horrors that war would inflict on the frontier settlers. "By rejecting the posts, we light the savage fires-we bind the victims. This day we undertake to render an account to the widows and orphans whom our decision will make." War with Great Britain he considered as the inevitable consequence of rejecting the treaty. Even if she were disposed to put up with the consequent state of things, this nation would not bear it. The indignation at her wrongs in 1794, which then called aloud for war, will now be reversed. He depicted the dangers to the unbraced structure of our government. His opposers acted, he said, as if they believed our union, our peace, our liberty, were invulnerable and immortal. He asked if a real American could look at the prosperity of the country without a 592 MAJORITY FOR THE TREATY. [CHAP. VIII. desire for its continuance; reminded them again of the anxieties felt in 1794 for the threatened peace of the country, and that the present treaty secured to them that inestimable blessing. It gains to the country every thing, because it confirms our neutrality, by which our citizens are profiting so much. "This treaty, like a rainbow on the edge of the cloud, marks to our eyes the space where the storm is raging, and affords, at the same time, the sure prognostic of fair weather. If we reject it, the vivid colors will grow pale; it will become a baneful meteor, portending tempest and war." He dilated on the immense gains of neutrality; and deplored the policy which would exchange this state of unexampled prosperity to incur danger which threatened not only the peace of the country, but the existence of the government. "There is, I believe, no member who will not think his chance to be a witness of the consequences greater than mine. If, however, the vote should pass to reject, and a spirit should rise, as it will, with the public disorders to make confusion worse confounded, even I, slender and almost broken as my hold on life is, may outlive the Government and Constitution of my country." A member in the opposition- Mr. Venable moved an adjournment, that the House should not vote under the influence of a sensibility which their calm judgment might condemn. The next day the resolution was carried through the Committee of the Whole by the casting vote of the Chairman; and it prevailed in the House by the vote of fiftyone to forty-eight, there being a majority of ten in the ranks of the opposition. It seemed that Ames's eloquence obtained the rare triumph of disarming and converting 1796.] INTERCOURSE WITH THE INDIANS. 593 even party prejudice, commonly the most intractable of all materials. Of the votes against the treaty, there were only four from New England; and of the votes in favor of it, there were only four from the States south of the Potomac. Of the members from the Middle States, a large majority were for it. An act soon afterwards was passed for regulating the intercourse with the Indians. It defined a boundary line1 beyond which no citizen of the United States was to pass either for hunting or feeding cattle, nor south of the Ohio for any purpose whatever, without a passport from some person authorised to give one by the President. By this line about one-half of the territory between the Mississippi and the Atlantic was secured to the Indians. The President might remove by force any persons attempting to settle west of the boundary line and intruders were punishable by fine and imprisonment. In case of robbery or other injury to the property of Indians, the offender, besides being punished, was to make reparation, and if he had no property, they were to be indemnified by the United States; provided, however, that there had been no attempt of the sufferer or his tribe to take private revenge. In case of injuries by Indians, application for redress was to be made through the Indian agents to the President, who was to use his discretion in the measures of redress: indemnity to be made to the sufferers by the United States, under a like condition, that they had not taken redress into their own hands. Indians caught within the territory of the whites, and 1 For this boundary line, extending from Lake Erie to the River St. Mary's, in Georgia, see the act of May 19th, 1796. VOL. I. 38 594 PRICE OF THE PUBLIC LANDS. [CHAP. VIII. whites within the Indian territory, were subject to summary trial. No one could trade with the Indians without license, nor buy of them any thing except skins or furs. All sales of Indian lands, except by treaty with the United States, were declared to be void. The President was also authorised to furnish them with domestic animals, implements of husbandry, &c., and to appoint agents to reside among them, to aid and instruct them, at an expense not exceeding fifteen thousand dollars a year. By another act, the President's suggestion of public trading-houses was carried into execution, and one hundred and fifty thousand dollars was appropriated for that purpose. Under this wise and humane system, these people began to make advances in civilization, and some of them continued to be steadily progressive. An act was also passed for the sale of the public lands north of the Ohio, now that there was peace with the Indians in that quarter. A system for surveying and laying out these lands into townships of six miles square, one-half of each of which was to be subdivided into thirty-six parts of a mile square, and the alternate townships were to be divided into quarter sections of one hundred and sixty acres each. They were to be sold occasionally at public auction, but the price was not to be less than two dollars per acre. This system was adopted for the purpose of preventing the overgrown domains which might be acquired by capitalists, and which would not only impede or retard the settlement of these public lands, but lay the foundation for a future landed aristocracy. As American seamen were often impressed by British |