CHAPTER XXIII

THE RUIN OF AMERICAN COMMERCE

1801-1812

On the 4th of March, 1801, Jefferson was inaugurated in Washington. Not only was he the first President to assume office there, but his inauguration meant that a great change had come over the country. The nineteenth century opened with the Democratic Republican party in power in most of the states. Instead of nineteen Federalists and thirteen Democrats in the Senate, there were now nineteen Democrats and thirteen Federalists. In the House there were seventy-one Democrats and thirty-four Federalists. During the next sixty years (till Lincoln was elected President) the Democrats controlled Congress, except in four Congresses.* So practically the party which Jefferson organized, and which elected him in 1800, was in power sixty years.

Jefferson was a remarkable man. After graduating from William and Mary College, he read law with Chancellor Wythe, and soon obtained a lucrative practice. He was familiar with Latin and Greek, French and Spanish. He gave great attention to practical botany, to architecture, to science, and to philosophy. He regularly received all important books on these subjects published in Europe, and his library was said to be the most complete in America. He was a keen observer of nature, and kept a daily record of the weather, of the markets, and of the growth of various plants and their habits. He was profoundly versed in the principles of law and government. He possessed great mechanical skill, played the violin well, was a bold horseman, and was a master of the rifle. He wrote the Declaration of Independence and founded the University of

* House, Whig (1838-40); Senate and House, Whig (1840-42); House, Republican (1854-56; 1858-60).

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Virginia. He had, perhaps, too much confidence in human nature. His religious ideas were liberal; his friendships wide and deep, and his personal following greater than that of any other man in our history. He would have been a leader of men in any age or country. Though differing from him at every point in politics, Hamilton at the critical moment gave him his influence and elected him President over Aaron Burr. To-day no name is more familiar to us than Jefferson's. His birthday is celebrated by annual banquets; Washington's, by a national holiday. Such celebrations signify that the ideas of these two men are living, powerful forces in the world to-day. But many Americans distrusted Jefferson in 1801, as others had distrusted Washington seven years before. Instead of delivering a long speech to Congress once a year, as Washington and Adams had done, Jefferson sent a written message, and his successors have followed his example.

The Democrats repealed the alien and sedition acts, cut down the navy and ariny, reduced salaries, abolished internal taxes, and in every way put into practice a favorite theory of theirs, that of a government "economically administered." The Federalists complained that this was all accomplished at the expense of efficiency. However,

the new party could tell the people that they had reduced the national debt nearly forty million dollars in eight years.* Jefferson was his own adviser; his cabinet was capable, but more like a clerical body than a directive force in administration. He believed, and as far as possible put in practice, the following ideas: All offices should be elective and for a term of years. The term should be short. As many new men should be appointed as possible, so as to train the people in government. Expenses should be cut down. The annual revenue was $10,800,000 in 1801, the annual expense $3,500,000, leaving $6,300,000 to apply on the debt. America should preserve neutrality in its foreign policy.

The army was reduced from four thousand to two thousand five hundred; fortifications in course of erection and ships on the stocks were abandoned. Of the thirteen frigates left in the navy, only six were in commission. The *1801-1809.

revenue from customs increased so that the loss from the abolition of the internal taxes was not felt.

By treaties with Morocco, Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli (1787-97), the United States agreed to pay tribute to these piratical powers as the price for trading in the Mediterranean. In 1800, Tripoli demanded more, and declared war. Jefferson had to fight. War was declared in 1802, but our navy was wholly unsuitable. Ships had to be built-much to the joy of the Federalists. Commodore Preble thoroughly concluded the business of American tribute to the Barbary powers, and these exactions came to an end in 1806.

By a secret treaty, Spain in 1800 ceded Louisiana west of the Mississippi to France. This vastly important transaction became known to Jefferson early in 1802. He showed a correct appreciation of the interests of the United States when he said that the power that controlled New Orleans and the Mississippi River was the "natural enemy' of the United States. Napoleon's plans respecting Louisiana were, presumably, its occupation by French troops and a permanent tribute on all American commerce on the great river. The West, from Pittsburg to the Floridas, recognized its danger, and urged the immediate seizure of New Orleans. But Jefferson had a wiser plan. He would offer to buy both West Florida and New Orleans, and with consent of Congress he sent James Monroe to aid Robert R. Livingston, our minister to France, in the purchase. The day before Monroe reached Paris, Livingston had by treaty secured all Louisiana from Napoleon for fifteen million dollars.

This unexpected turn of affairs was caused by Napoleon's war with England, and particularly by the utter failure of his expedition to San Domingo. He had abandoned all plans for American colonization before Monroe arrived, and to cripple England, into whose hands Louisiana might fall, he determined to sell it to the United States. The treaty of cession, April 30, 1803, added 1,182,752 square miles to the United States, at a cost, when all payments and claims were settled, of less than four cents an acre. It remains the largest real-estate transaction in our history, and the greatest event in Jefferson's administration. On

1803-1811])

LOUISIANA; OREGON

331

the 20th of December, the Stars and Stripes were raised in New Orleans, "amidst the acclamations of the inhabitants, and the vast Louisiana country became American soil.

Except along the Mississippi from St. Louis to the Floridas, the country was as little known to white men as on the day Columbus landed. The treaty named no definite boundaries, because none were known. Somewhere in the new country-as Jefferson told Congress in a special message there was a mountain, "said to be one hundred and eighty miles long and forty-five in width, composed of solid rock-salt," which, by the way, would be a deal of salt, what Bassanio would call "an infinite deal." Jefferson was too good a scientist to vouch for this mountain. The new country attracted him, and in May, 1804, he succeeded in starting Meriweather Lewis and William Clarke, at public expense, to explore it. At that time they left St. Louis, ascended the Missouri, spent the winter with the Dacotah Indians, near Bismarck, North Dakota, then followed the river to its source. Crossing the divide, they floated down. the Clear Water to the Columbia, which brought them, in November, 1805, to the sea. They returned to St. Louis in the following year, and later reported their continental journey to Congress and the President. Nor was this all. Zebulon Pike, sent to find the headwaters of the Mississippi, in 1805, missed them, but continuing his explorations in 1806, discovered, ascended, and named the great peak in Colorado, passed to the southwest, suffered terrible hardships, was made a prisoner by the Spaniards, but at last reached home.

Beyond Louisiana lay California and the Oregon country. As early as 1792, Captain Robert Gray, in the ship Columbia, discovered the river to which he gave the name of his ship. Gray spent nine days in exploring it, and thus established the claim of the United States to all the country it drained. In 1811, John Jacob Astor established a trading-post at Astoria. What Gray had discovered and Lewis and Clark had explored was now utilized by the Pacific Fur Company, which Astor founded. A few settlements were made.

Meanwhile war between England and France was fiercely

raging, and in spite of our policy of neutrality we were the sufferers. Had we been a strong nation, neither William Pitt, son of that William Pitt at the head of the government when Washington and Braddock started for Fort Duquesne, and now Prime Minister of England, nor Napoleon, now Emperor of the French, would have dared to treat us as they did. Pitt wanted to keep all American supplies from France; Napoleon wanted to shut them out of England, and Jefferson had an idea that they were essential to both and that by withholding them we could practically dictate terms to both powers. In the end all three schemes failed.

For a dozen years American merchants had been getting cargoes in the French West Indies, bringing them into American ports, paying the duty, and then, without unloading, taking them to France. By our law ninety-seven per cent of the custom charges were paid back. This practically amounted to a direct trade between the French colonies and France in American ships. Napoleon liked it, but the British court of admiralty, in May, 1805, handed down a decision that goods thus transported were "contraband of war," and could be seized wherever found by English ships. The British government at once carried the decision into effect by overhauling American merchantmen and impressing our seamen. Though we were at peace with England, British gunboats were stationed off our ports to make such seizures. In 1804, thirty-nine American vessels were seized; before another year closed, the British had taken one hundred and sixteen of our vessels and upwards of one thousand of our seamen. Nelson's victory at Trafalgar made England mistress of the sea. We had no navy; we could only expostulate.

In November, 1804, Jefferson was re-elected, and George Clinton was chosen Vice-President The Twelfth Amendment had become a part of the Constitution on the 25th of September, thus preventing a tie vote, in the future, such as had been cast in 1800. Jefferson and Clinton received 162 electoral votes, Charles C. Pinckney and Rufus King, the Federalist candidates 14. The legislatures chose the electors in six states, Vermont, Connecticut, New York,