and Madison throughout their administrations, giving them and their principles his hearty and fervid support. He had then been five years in the Executive chair, and had a strong hold upon the masses as well as upon leading men. He had been found fully adequate to his position, and never shrunk from any duty. He was the first Governor who had had the nerve to prorogue the Legislature under the provisions of the then constitution. This he had done on the 27th of March, 1812, hoping thereby to prevent the chartering of a bank through the means of bribery and corruption. Then he displayed an honesty, firmness, and courage which the people greatly admired, as his triumphant reëlection the next year clearly confirmed.

Every call made by the national Government upon the State was promptly answered. At his instance the Legislature voted men, which the Governor caused to be sent into the field; and money, which he properly applied. He advanced all his own. means and all he could procure among his friends to aid in bringing the war to a successful close. But more money was required. The banks would not lend on the stocks or treasury notes of the national Government without additional security. When informed that half a million could be raised on treasury notes if the Governor would indorse them, he remarked that he should have to act on his own responsibility and should be ruined. Thereupon, Rufus King remarked to him, "Then ruin yourself, if it becomes necessary to save the country, and I pledge you my honor that I will support you in whatever you do." Governor Tompkins indorsed the notes, and the banks advanced the money.

The Governor traversed the State, and went wherever he could be useful in rallying men and facilitating the progress of preparation for defence or assault, not unfrequently assisting with his own hands in prying from the mud, wagons loaded with warsupplies.

Such was his hold upon the confidence of the people, that Mr. Madison tendered him the office of Secretary of State, then considered the stepping-stone to the presidency, but he declined. In October, 1814, he was appointed by Mr. Madison to the command of the third military district, which included New York, in

which he acquitted himself with very great ability and success. When, at the close of the war, the troops were disbanded, he received from all quarters complimentary letters expressing much gratitude for his services. These compliments, and the satisfaction of having faithfully performed his duty, are all the recompense he ever received for his services.

He was reëlected Governor, by a triumphant majority, at the spring election of 1816. A congressional caucus having nominated James Monroe for President and Governor Tompkins for VicePresident, they were both elected in December, 1816, and were sworn into office on the 4th of March, 1817. Both were reëlected, and served until the 4th of March, 1825. In 1821 VicePresident Tompkins was a delegate, and elected president of the convention for the revision of the constitution of New York. He died on the 11th of June, 1825, on Staten Island, where he then resided, deeply lamented by all who knew him.

Such a man as Daniel D. Tompkins is an honor to the age and State in which he lived. Of all fraud, peculation, and dishonesty he was innocent. The assault of his political enemies, charging that he was a defaulter to the State and nation, was disproved by the action of the State Legislature as to the one and Congress as to the other, the latter appropriating over $95,000 as a balance due him.

To him, more than to any other man, are we indebted for preventing the British from sweeping over the State of New York and subduing it, and for restraining the secession and disunion proclivities of New England and the growing discontents in New Jersey. The glorious efforts of Tompkins secured New York to the Union, and the sober second thought became effective in New Jersey, leaving New England alone in her despairing agony in her pursuit of power. But for the management of Virginia politicians, whose fortunes he had saved, Tompkins would have been President, as the popular voice demanded and the people expected. But a seat in the national Executive chair could not have added to his fame or worth, and could only have furnished cumulative evidence of an admitted fact. New York will ever be proud of him as a son, and the nation will cherish his memory with admiration and gratitude.

44.-BURNING BLUE-LIGHTS.

The scrap of history we are now about to cite is given to show to what ends erroneous principles will carry men. Instead of exerting their talents and energies to protect their fellow-citizens in their pursuits, they lead men to defeat protection and humble the State at the feet of a foreign power. It is ever the object of those professing anti-Democratic principles to overcome every opposing obstacle and seat themselves in power. The pursuit of the object occasions excitement, and during its existence the means of accomplishing the end are not scrutinized rigidly, even if their propriety is at all considered. Patriotism is ignored, and every thing possible must be made to contribute to ultimate suc

cess.

During the War of 1812 our vessels-of-war were often driven and shut up in protecting harbors to avoid the superior force of the enemy. The only possible chance of escape was under cover of the darkness of night, when the enemy could not discern their movements nor become alarmed at them.

During the war, June 1, 1813, Commodore Decatur, commanding the frigates United States and Macedonian, and Hornet, was chased into the harbor of New London by a vastly superior force. During the remainder of the war, these three vessels continued shut in there, while the blockading squadron by its position commanded the commerce of Long Island Sound and vicinity. This was destructive of our coasting trade in that quarter. Decatur was fertile in expedients and skilful in managing to escape. But he was baffled by the enemy, who seemed always to be aware of his intended movements. The cause soon became perfectly apparent. Randall, in his admirable "Life of Jefferson," says:

"He officially communicated to the Secretary of the Navy (December 20, 1813) that he attempted to get to sea on a dark and tempestuous night; that as soon as his movements to that end became apparent, signals continued to the enemy were made by burning blue-lights on both points of the harbor's mouth, and he declared: 'There is not a doubt that they (the enemy) have by signals or

otherwise instantaneous information of our movements.

Notwithstanding these signals have been repeated and seen by twenty persons at least in this squadron, there are men in New London who have the hardihood to affect to disbelieve it and the effrontery to avow their disbelief.' During a severe storm of wind and rain in March, 1814, Decatur issued orders for the instant embarcation of his officers. In a very short time blue-lights were thrown up like rockets from Long Point, and were immediately answered by three guns from the British fleet. These signals were witnessed by all the officers and men in the American look-out boats and also by some of the officers at Fort Trumbull. They were known to be signals by those who were perfectly familiar with that species of marine communication. It is proper to say, that these treasonable practices were admitted and severely reprobated by a portion of the Federalists."*

In how many other instances signals have been displayed for the benefit of the enemy, no one can tell. These instances show to what extent party feeling will go when under excitement. Decatur would doubtless have got to sea with his three ships, but for the successful efforts at treason, designed to crush the nation and humble it before the British lion by these Federalists at New London.

45.-DISUNION PROPOSED BY THE FEDERALISTS.

From the overthrow of the Federal party, in 1800, there existed a grumbling feeling in the bosom of the leaders of that party. It first manifested itself in the action on the treaty ceding Louisiana to us, and in the legislation necessary to carry it into effect. The settlement of the Louisiana purchase, and the creation of States out of it, and from the Virginia and other cessions West, clearly indicated the future loss of political power in the

*The author is greatly indebted to Mr. Randall's work for facts which he states, and especially for many extracts which he gives. He cannot too highly recommend this work to those who seek accurate information concerning the Revolution, the formation of our Federal Government, and its operations for the first quarter of a century. It is the only work that has done full justice to the mind and character of Mr. Jefferson.

East, and naturally led to the consideration of the means of averting it. Separation presented the only practicable mode. As early as 1796, during Washington's administration, the question was broached in a series of papers in the Hartford Courant. Among other things, it was stated:

"The Northern States can subsist as a nation, as a republic, without any connection with the South. It cannot be contested, that if the Southern States were possessed of the same political ideas, a union would still be more desirable than a separation. But when it becomes a serious question, whether we shall give up our Government, or part with the States south of the Potomac, no man north of that river, whose heart is not thoroughly Democratic, can hesitate what decision to make.

"I shall in future papers consider some of the great events which will lead to a separation of the United States, and show the importance of retaining their present Constitution, even at the expense of a separation; endeavor to prove the impossibility of a union for any long period in future, both from the moral and political habits of the citizens of the Southern States; finally, examine carefully to see whether we have not already approached the era when they must be divided."

In relation to the effect of the Louisiana purchase upon the Federal party and its disunion design, John Quincy Adams, in 1828, wrote: "This design had been formed in the winter of 1803 and 1804, immediately after, and as a consequence of, the acquisition of Louisiana .... This plan was so far matured, that the proposal had been made to an individual to permit himself, at the proper time, to be placed at the head of the military movements, which it was foreseen would be necessary for carrying it into execution. The project, I repeat, had gone to the length of fixing upon a military leader for its.execution."

In the same year he wrote to Governor Plummer of New Hampshire, saying:

"Much of my information, at the time, was collected from Mr. Tracy, the Senator from Connecticut, who disapproved the project, but was, I believe, made acquainted with it, in all its particulars. I think, though I am not sure, that it was he who named