he was very much abused, although in the end it turned out to be the wisest course. After a time, many of the sympathizers with France, who had taken her side through a generous feeling of sympathy, grew disgusted with the way the revolution went on there, and the feeling in her favor grew less and less ardent, till it died out altogether.

Washington's administration now drew to a close. The only other trouble of any importance, beside the Indian wars, and the intense feeling about the affairs in France, which occurred in his time, was the "Whiskey Insurrection" in Pennsylvania. Whiskey is likely to make insurrections, or other kinds of trouble always, and this one was caused by a tax put upon this liquor by the government. At one time, in 1794, it threatened to be a serious rebellion, and the rioters burned the mails, and the houses of the tax-officers, and made a great deal of trouble. But Washington sent out a strong force, which subdued the rioters and restored peace.

In 1796 Washington's second term expired. No arguments could make him accept the office another four years. He was sixty-five years old; he had served his country faithfully; now he wanted to spend in quiet the last years of his life in the pleasant home at Mount Vernon, with his wife, and her grandchildren, whom he loved as if they were his own.

So the two parties had to select each a new leader. The Federalists took John Adams, who had been vice-president with Washington; the Republicans chose Thomas Jefferson, who had been from the first their leader. In those days we have changed it now the man who had the most votes in the presidential election, was president; he who had the second highest number was vice-president. When the votes were counted it was found Adams was president and Jefferson vice-president.

CHAPTER III.

ADAMS'S ADMINISTRATION.

War with France imminent. - Washington and Napoleon. - The Nation mourns at Washington's Death. The Capital changed to Washington City. - Mrs. Adams's Experiences in Washington.

It seems very odd now to think of the two heads of political parties, sharing the two highest offices between them. Very few men

could be found more unlike in mind, manners, and opinion, than

John Adams and Thomas

Jefferson, yet one was president, and the other vice-president. They agreed, however, in both being true patriots, with a sincere desire for the good of their country, even when they did not agree upon the measures by which they could best serve her, and that preserved them from any great misunderstanding.

The disputes between the Federalists and Republicans waxed hotter than ever in John Adams's administration. In 1797 the country came very near war with France, who was already at war

with nearly every country in Europe. She now called herself a republic, and her brilliant young warrior, Napoleon Bonaparte, was leading her armies to victory from one battle-field to another. One of the first things President Adams did was to send an embassy to France to talk over her relations with the United States. Charles Coatesworth Pinckney was one of these ambassadors. The French ministry hinted to him that the United States might make matters smooth by paying a certain amount of money to them. "No," answered Pinckney, "Millions for defense, but not one cent for tribute," meaning that they would rather spend millions of dollars to fit out ships and an army to defend the country, than pay one cent as a bribe to buy off the war with which they were threatened.

When war seemed to be close at hand the United States began fitting out a navy, and gathering together an army. Washington was called on to be the commander, and again came forward at the call of his country. What a wonderful story history might have to tell, if Washington had fought in a campaign against the armies of

Napoleon Bonaparte. But this did not happen. War was not fully decided upon, and finally the cloud passed over, and there was fair weather again.

Only a few months after the country' had heard the news that their beloved commander-in-chief was ready to lead its armies, in the event of a war with France, came the news of his sudden death. George Washington was dead! The news struck a chill to all hearts. The father of his country, the beloved leader of the people, covered with honors and mourned by a grateful nation, was borne to his tomb. The whole people wore mourning, and a united voice of lamentation went up for him all over the land. In England and France the highest honors were paid to his memory. Many ships of the English fleet wore their flags at half-mast. Napoleon Bonaparte ordered the banners of the French Republic to be decorated with crape. Wherever the name of Washington was spoken, it was mentioned with tender and profound reverence.

In 1800 the national capital was changed. When Washington was made president, the seat of government was in New York city. In his second year it had been moved to Philadelphia, where the Colonial Congress had held its meetings. But it was finally decided that the capital ought to be farther south, on the banks of the Potomac. Accordingly a site was chosen, a president's mansion was built there, and a national capitol begun in the new city of Washington. It was in winter weather when President Adams went down with his wife to begin housekeeping in the new edifice which the United States had built for its presidents. Mrs. Adams was a thrifty housewife, and capable of making the best of things, but she found Washington a rough place, and a great change from New York and Philadelphia. Except the new public buildings, there was hardly a house in sight. A few poor huts where the laborers lived who had been engaged on the buildings, and a dreary expanse of thick forests, were all she could see from the windows of the cold and cheerless mansion. Although wood was so plenty, they could hardly get laborers to cut it, and they could not burn coal, because there were no grates in the house. Poor Mrs. President! she was afraid they could not keep warm enough to drive off the ague ; and she says, no doubt thinking regretfully of Philadelphia, or her own dear Boston: "This is indeed a new country." Remember this was the capital of our republic in the first year of the century. President Adams was not re-elected a second term. The Repub

lican party was growing stronger and stronger, and in 1801 elected Thomas Jefferson as its third president, and Aaron Burr of New York as vice-president.

CHAPTER IV.

JEFFERSON'S PRESIDENCY.

The Purchase of Louisiana. -The First Journey from Ocean to Ocean. - Lewis and Clarke's Expedition. The Sources of the Missouri and Columbia Rivers. -The Great Pacific Ocean. Return of Lewis and Clarke.

THE country had been growing richer and more prosperous every year since the war ended. Every year saw an increase in the tide of people going west to settle in the new lands beyond the Ohio River. A rich farming country was opening up, under the plows of the thrifty settlers, all the way from Ohio to Mississippi Territory. In the very first year of Jefferson's rule, the Territory of Ohio. came to urge her claim to be made a State. Congress voted in her favor, and a new star, to represent the State of Ohio, was put in the flag of the Union.

Gelesson

owned Louisiana, and that territory extended up the river from New Orleans, as far as the Falls of St. Anthony, where Hennepin had explored.

New Orleans was now a large town, well protected by forts guarding the mouth of the Mississippi. St. Louis was a snug settlement of

log cabins where dwelt a company of French fur traders with their Indian wives, whose children, speaking a mixture of the French and Indian tongues, could be seen playing beside the waters of the muddy Missouri.

Spain had recently ceded Louisiana to France, and France needed money to carry on her wars. So when President Jefferson, who was on very good terms with France, offered fifteen millions of dollars for her possession in North America, Napoleon accepted the offer, and the bargain was ratified at once. Jefferson believed in a good large country with no troublesome neighbors at the back door, such as we might have had if the Spaniards or the French had kept the Mississippi River. Thus by peaceful purchase we got the great territory of Louisiana and the towns of New Orleans, St. Louis, and all the trading posts and forts situated on the great river. The Spaniards still kept the peninsula of Florida, the land they had first settled in North America.

Jefferson offered the governorship of Louisiana to Lafayette, who was then living on his estate in France, but Lafayette refused, because he was unwilling to abandon his own country. Therefore, General Wilkinson, a soldier who had served with Gates in his campaign against Burgoyne, was made governor of the new Territory.

As soon as his purchase was complete, Jefferson was eager to explore the new country we had gained. At this time nobody knew anything about a route across the continent. There was a romantic account by a man named Jonathan Carver, who had journeyed across the country from the Atlantic to the Pacific. But with the excep

tion of this solitary traveler, it was not known that any one had ever explored the country from one ocean to another. Jefferson planned such a journey, and began to look about for men to undertake it.

He had a private secretary, named Captain Merriweather Lewis, a very quiet man, but a man of undaunted resolve and great enthusiasm for science. To him and to Captain Clarke, who had been a soldier in several Indian campaigns, the president finally intrusted his project. These two leaders went to St. Louis, in the winter of 1803-4, and there collected a party of forty or fifty men, and all necessaries for their journey, -the first journey across the American

continent.

They started up the muddy waters of the Missouri in little boats. Part of the boats worked by sails, part of them by oars. When the