"I omitted at the time to inform you that at the particular desire of Lord Cornwallis communicated to me through the Duke of Portland, I consented that one of these State prisoners, by the name of Lynch, Brother to a merchant of the same name in New York, should be permitted to go to New York, for which place he sailed some months since. He was represented to me as of inferior consequence as a conspirator, and by no means likely to be mischievous among us. It is proper that you should know the fact that he may be identified and remembered."

SIR:

HENRY JACKSON TO R. KING.

DUBLIN, 22d July, 1799.

I am one of the many that has been implicated in this unfortunate country and having obtained the Lord Lieutenant's permission to go to America, provided I go with your consent, I beg leave to refer you to the American Consul in this city for my general character.

I have been for many years in the Iron Trade and lately sold part of my Works for £26.250-and there remains yet to be disposed of what has cost me upwards of £10,000-a principal part of that sum I have vested in American defer'd stock and American Bank Shares. The whole of this property I intend removing to America with my family as soon as possible. I have long had a predilection for the American form of Government, but my being so engaged in manufactures in this country prevented my removing. Should I meet with a situation to my liking I hope to make my knowledge of the Iron Manufacture and Foundry business an acquisition to any part of the Country I may settle in.

The Joseph, belonging to New York, is now here and intends sailing the 10th of next month; if I am so fortunate as to get a favourable answer to this application, I intend going by her. I take the liberty of sending this open to Joseph Wilson Esq to be forwarded.

I am with great respect &c.

HEN. JACKSON.

Mr. Wilson enclosed this in a letter dated July 24, 1799, to Mr. King-in which he speaks in strong commendation of Mr. Jackson as to his moral and business qualifications, founded on an acquaintance of fifteen years.

Mr. King's answer to this letter follows.

R. KING TO HENRY JACKSON, ESQ.

BRIGHTON, Aug. 28, 1799.

SIR:

I ought to inform you that I really have no authority to give, or refuse permission to you or any other foreigner to go to the United States: the admission and residence of Strangers in that country being a matter that by a late Law exclusively belongs to the President. It is true that the Government of that

country in the course of the last year, in consequence of my interference gave me an assurance that a particular description of persons in Ireland, who it was understood were going to the United States, should not be allowed to proceed without our consent; this restraint would doubtless be withdrawn in favor of individuals against whose emigration I should not object; and I conclude that it is upon this supposition that you have taken the trouble to communicate to me your desire to go and reside in the United States. Without presuming to form an opinion on the subject of the late disturbances in Ireland, I entertain a distinct one in relation to the political situation of my own country. In common with others we have felt the influence of the changes that have successively taken place in France, and unfortunately a portion of our Inhabitants has erroneously supposed that our civil and political institutions, as well as our national policy might be improved by a close imitation of the models of France. This opinion, the propagation of which was made the duty and became the chief employment of the French agents resident among us, created a more considerable division among our people, and required a greater watchfulness and activity from the Government, than could beforehand have been apprehended. I am sorry to make the remark, and shall stand in need of your candour in doing so, that a large proportion of the emigrants from Ireland, and especially in our middle States, has upon this occasion arranged itself upon the side of the malcontents; I ought to except from this remark most of the enlightened and well educated Irishmen who reside among us, and with a few exceptions I may confine it to the indigent and illiterate, who, entertaining an attachment to freedom, are unable easily to appreciate those salutary restraints, without which it degenerates into anarchy. It would be injustice to say that the Irish emigrants are more national than those of other countries, yet being a numerous, tho' very minor portion of our population, they are capable, from causes it is needless now to explain, of being generally brought to act in concert, and under careful leaders may be, as they have been, enlisted in mischievous combinations against our Government. This view leads me to state to you without reserve the hesitation that I have felt in your case; on the one hand we cannot object to the acquisition of Inhabitants from abroad possessing capital and skill in a branch of business, that with due caution, may without risque or difficulty, and with public as well as private advantage, be established among us; but on the other hand if the opinions of such Inhabitants are likely to throw them into the class of malcontents, their fortune, skill and consequent influence would make them tenfold more dangerous, and they might become a disadvantage instead of a benefit to our country. You must be sensible that I possess no sufficient means of forming an opinion respecting your sentiments, but the motives which lead me to interfere with your Government to restrain the Emigration of the Persons above alluded to, oblige me to observe a due caution on the present occasion. At the same time I desire not to act with illiberality and should be unwilling to bring upon my country the slightest imputation of inhospitality. What Mr. Wilson has written, so far as it goes, is satisfactory; and on the whole I have concluded after this unreserved communication, which I hope will be received with the same candour as it is made, to inform you, authorizing you to make

use of the information, that I withdraw every objection that may be supposed to stand in the way of your being permitted to go to the United States, adding only my earnest wish that you may carry with you an unbiassed mind, may find the state of the Country, as I believe you will, favorable to your views of business, and its Government deserving your attachment,

I must beg your Excuse for the great delay that has occurred in sending you this answer, which I assure you has arisen from other causes than the want of due respect to your letter.

With great Consideration, &c, &c,

RUFUS KING.

Mr. King, under the existing circumstances, could not have acted otherwise, as he says, than he did. It was not a question simply of interfering to prevent Irishmen from emigrating to America, as was afterwards charged against him, but of his duty to look after the interests of his country and after those chiefs whom he characterized as imbued with French principles and would be leaders in propagating them among his own people, who were at that very time so largely under similar influences and causing much embarrassment to the Government. It was the leaders that he would keep out, men who had made trouble in their own country and were not likely to be quiet in a country where speech was free and where much discontent was in the air. The Congress also had passed Alien and Sedition laws (whatever may be thought of their wisdom), which clearly indicated the sentiment of the country and the determination that French principles and disorganizing ways should be checked by even such questionable means. Mr. King therefore must be judged by the circumstances and conditions in which he was placed, which show that he acted wisely, for those very men who found their way over became leaders among those who opposed the government. It was not Irishmen because they were Irishmen, that he objected to; for he well knew the services of Irishmen and their descendants in the War of the Revolution and in the councils of the nation-his own associates in public affairs,—but he feared the present leaders, for he knew the principles they avowed and by which they had been governed, in carrying out what, as men aiming at liberation from what they deemed the oppression of the British rule, they believed they had the right to do. It was the principles avowed and the associates to whom they allied themselves that made those men at that time dangerous citizens for the United States.

As will be seen in subsequent periods of his life, indeed throughout his public life, this action was the source of bitter hostility to him and his family whenever they were candidates. for public office. In the year 1806, and in 1816, when he had been put forward for election as Governor of the State of New York, Mr. King wrote for publication an answer to charges, with which the newspapers were filled, a vindication of his action in this matter, based upon the grounds above noted, as will be seen when the events of those years are under consideration.

In the Life of Hamilton, by J. C. Hamilton, vol. vii., p. 156, we find this expression of opinion by him in 1819-a writer who was not inclined to say anything favorable to Mr. King.

"The oppressed and infuriated Irish also sought an asylum here from their poverty and their wrongs. Long suffering from misrule, this impassioned people were led to regard established government as an abuse. Craftily prejudiced with the belief, that neutrality was subservience to England, and that Federalism meant more than a love of the Constitution, of law and liberty, they were soon marshalled in the Democratic ranks, of which they became and have continued a most efficient part. . . . The great mass of the Irish were prompted by misguided prejudices. Warm in their affections, faithful in their trusts, their women constituting a part of every household, holding its children in their arms and watching over their infancy; their men building the cities, and the public works, and ranging themselves among the first in battle for American rights, to them the gratitude is large. But among them were their political offenders, who, abandoning their fealty to England, placed their affections on France and became her active partisans. The Democratic societies organized by Genet, had been denounced by Washington and were suppressed. An association was now proposed and entered into, better suited to the bolder character of these recent emigrants. . . . THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF UNITED IRISHMEN' was founded, of all such and such only as had suffered in the cause of freedom, or who by their zeal for the rights of mankind had rendered themselves distinguished and worthy of trust.' The members were bound by a test oath, organized with military gradation and precision; pledged to act with energy and union; to act upon instant warningwhat was this monster other than a conspiracy against the government.' Hamilton characterized it as threatening an internal invasion,' and 'its existence was the leading and all sufficient motive for the enactment of a law for the removal of aliens,' 'judged dangerous to the peace and safety of the United States,' &c."

Among other evidences that the conduct of Mr. King was sustained by those whose opinion he regarded, is a letter from Mr. G. Cabot, February 16, 1799. He says:

"If the seditious were hardy enough to denounce you for the great service you have render'd the country in shutting its doors against Irish Desperadoes, you would still have reason to be content, for the praises of the good would be increased in proportion to the clamours of the vicious; but I believe the measure is so generally approved that Faction will hardly dare to condemn."

APPENDIX V.

MIRANDA.

To understand better the circumstances which gave rise to the project with which the name of Miranda is connected, the following narrative may be given. The dependencies of Spain in South America were very restive under the government of the mother country, and especially after the success of the American Revolution, and many ardent spirits in these colonies of Spain sought to obtain for them their independence. Among those who were most prominent, was Francisco de Miranda, a native of Caracas, who had studied and observed in the United States the system under which they were living, and who had in previous years "disclosed his views, among others, to Hamilton, upon whom he fixed his eyes as a coadjutor in the great purpose of his life. Nor was Hamilton slow to perceive its importance and its advantages." There was no active co-operation at that time, and Miranda betook himself to Europe, and endeavored to engage some of the European nations in his plan, but without success.

Taking advantage of a threatened war between England and Spain, he had communicated with the British Ministry with a view to effecting the liberation of the South American colonies of Spain; but was disappointed by the restoration of good feelings between the two countries, though he had been listened to with favor. Soon after he had gone to France, hoping to reap some benefit from the revolutionary ideas of the leaders, obtained a commission in the French army, and under Dumouriez served with some distinction. With a change of rulers there, he was banished from France and took refuge in England, then engaged in a war with France, hoping again to get a hearing from the ministry, and to show that as Spain was the close ally of France, they

*Life of Hamilton, vol. vii., p. 212.