the images were a month apart, and it was a month in which the wheels of the nation seemed to stop, and even the second-hand of the newspapers was still. When Nelson died, one-half of the press on one side was in mourning, while one opposition paper, at least, mounted an eagle jubilant. The badges and club-names of the Old World were borrowed, and against the black cockade were set off the tri-coloured ribbon,-against "the friends of order," the "United Irishmen," the "Sons of France," and the German Republicans." At the town-meeting called in New York to denounce Jay's treaty, the men marched under the alternate flags of France and the United States, chanting,— as well as they could,-the Marseillaise. The gross approaches of this denationalizing spirit, the envoys at the rival courts, pure and patriotic as they were, could not escape: and by one side Mr. Monroe was believed to have been bought with French gold; by the other, Mr. King with British,by the one side Mr. Jay was burnt in effigy in South Carolina;* by the other, Mr. Gerry in Massachusetts. One began to hate the other as bitterly as the English hated the French; the other returned the hatred as intensely as the French hated the English. When the flag of the country was lowered, it is no wonder that personal honour should have dropped with it; that a Secretary of State should have been forced to resign, in consequence of a suspected intrigue with France; and that a Senator of the United States should have been expelled, in consequence of a proved understanding with England.§ All this tended to cheapen the country in the foreign market. "What will the neutral nations think of us now ?" said Mr. Jefferson to Mr. Rutledge on June 27, 1797; "I know not; but we are low, indeed, with the belligerents. Their kicks and cuffs prove their contempt." Great Britain and Spain, before our very face, tried in turn to inveigle the western country from the Union by promising it the free navigation of the Mississippi, if it would only secede. In fact a kick from the one side would be set off against a cuff from the other. Great Britain, in defiance of the treaty of peace, kept hold of and armed the forts along the Ohio; and France, to make up for this, started an opposition line of batteries on the Gulf of Mexico. Great Britain issued a general search-warrant by which our ships were one by one ransacked; France, less formal in her approaches, because more rare in her opportunities, laid in wait behind the bluffs of Saint Domingo, and in one month, in 1799, pounced upon and carried back to her ambuscade no less than fifty-six American sail. Mr. Fauchet, in his intercepted despatch of October 31, 1794, boasted that he had bribed the Secretary of State. Mr. Liston, in his purloined letter of May 6, 1799, hinted that he possessed an understanding almost as intimate with the whole government. In the exercise of a condescension still more humiliating, emissaries were sent over to convince us, either that our revolution had gone too far, or that it had not gone far enough; Volney, Paine, Rowan, and Tandy, taking in hand the latter task, and Cobbett, single as he was, more than a match for all of them, the former.

It was at this, by far the gloomiest period in our history, that the trials which form a large portion of the following pages took place. Perhaps it may not be useless for those who still doubt as to the result of that great problem by which our fathers were distracted, to compare our then foreign relations with our present. Bitter as were the injuries inflicted upon us in the

† 2 Aust. Life of Gerry, 266.

Jay's Life, 361. "A Vindication of Mr. R.'s resignation," Pamph., Phil. 1795. 11 Sparks' Wash., 52, 54, 76, 479. $ See post, 250.

2 Mars. Life of Washington, 152. In Dec. 1807, it turned up that propositions for a secession bad in 1797 been actually made by the Spanish Governor of New Orleans to Judge Innes, a leading citizen of Ohio; and that the latter had not at the time divulged the propo sition, "because Mr. Adams was President, and he did not want an army sent into the coun try!" See Sawyer's Biog. of Rand., 27.

first French Revolution, they have been wiped out. From Great Britain the supremacy of the seas has been torn. From France every cent of spoliations was wrung by a hand as rough, and with gestures as imperious, as those by which those spoliations were inflicted.* At last the United States, which fifty years ago could hardly keep its central territory from being carried away under its very eyes, announced to Europe that it would consider any foreign interference in the affairs of the American continent as a cause of war; and Europe listened and acquiesced.

However similar may have been the means adopted by the belligerent nations to break up American neutrality, their system of annoyance, in one respect, was very different. Great Britain, operating upon the seas, as has been noticed, was out of the reach of any process but that of a declaration of war. France, being hampered in that means of pillage, by opening recruiting offices on our shores, made herself amenable to our municipal laws. While, until the war of 1812, the invasions of the former met with no redress, those of the latter became the constant subjects of adjudication in our courts. fore entering, however, upon a more minute review of the relations by which these proceedings were induced, it will not be out of place to notice, generally, the political bearings of the administration, which they principally con

cern.

Be

Mr. Adams took his seat under influences which made the dissensions which soon beset him no cause for wonder. Sequestered for eight years in the Vice-presidentship; deriving his chief political experience from the conti nental Congress, where his earnest but unsocial disposition had occupied itself much more in the advocacy of the single principle of separation, than in the settlement of the policy of the country to be separated ;t familiar, it is true, with the theory of government as a science, but unused to its practical application; simple in his tastes, but from his long residence abroad in embassies, often more formal than real, and his subsequent occupation of a post where the dignity rather than the duty of office engrossed him, too

• General Jackson, in his message of Dec. 1, 1834, said, "Since France, in violation of the pledges given through her minister here, has delayed her final action so long, that her deci sion will not, probably, be known in time to be communicated to this Congress, I recommend that a law be passed, authorizing reprisals upon French property, in case provision shall not be made for the payment of the debt at the approaching session of the French Chambers. If she (France) should continue to refuse that act of acknowledged justice, and, in violation of the law of nations, make reprisals on our part the occasion of hostilities against the United States, she would but add violence to injustice, and would not fail to expose herself to the censure of civilized nations, and the retributive justice of Heaven.”

"Never," exclaims Louis Blanc, (2 France under Louis Philip, 315,) "had the French nation, illustrious and respected among all the nations of the world, been treated with such excessive insolence. General Jackson's message was no sooner known in Paris thau indig nation was kindled in every mind. What? It was with menace and insult upon his lips, almost sword in hand, that he dared demand of France the payment of a debt, the lawfulness of which was not yet proved."

But notwithstanding all this, on April 18, 1835, the Chamber of Deputies, by a vote of 289 to 137, passed the appropriation, and at last, after forty years, the spoliations of 1797-1800 were paid.

Mr Adams' views on domestic policy were never very settled, exposing him to Mr. Tracey's bon mot, that, like eternity, his circumference was everywhere, and his centre no where. His early views were of the severest school of New England republicanism; but during his residence abroad they became somewhat expanded, as his printed works bear winess; and when in the Presidency, he more than once let drop expressions more paradoxical than just, which his constitutional advisers were careful enough to preserve, and which are referred to in Mr. Hamilton's letter, one of which was, "that the country could not get on without a hereditary chief." (2 Gibbs' Wol., 411.) In after life he returned to his old creed, and among the papers of a distinguished Virginia statesman with whom he corresponded, is an argument by him, showing the inexpediency and unconstitutionality of a Bank of the United States.

apt to lay stress on the mere pomp and circumstance of authority; his unquestioned patriotism and probity were so far tinged by the foibles incident to his temperament and his situation, as to make the character and disposition of his constitutional advisers of critical moment. Had their nomination sprung from himself, and could he, therefore, in his intercourse with them, have looked upon them with the complacency which would have been caused by the sensation that they were the work of his own hands; could this feeling have been met on their part by a conciliatory bearing; perhaps an administration firm, bold and patriotic, might have resulted. Vigour and love of country enough there were in the President, power enough in his splendid revolutionary fame, and in the reverence felt to his austere and venerable character, to have made his administration, if properly directed, one of great popular strength. But, unfortunately, while he felt no pride in his cabinet, his cabinet felt no fealty to him; nor was their consciousness of their own business capacity qualified on their part by even a respectable opinion of his. Mr. Hamilton-who, as will be seen, expressed the views of at least three of the secretaries-in his celebrated letter on the character of John Adams, says, when speaking of this very period: "I then adopted an opinion, which my subsequent experience has confirmed, that he is a man of an imagination, sublimated and eccentric; propitious neither to the regular display of sound judgment, nor to perseverance in a systematic line of conduct; and I began to perceive what has since been too manifest, that to this defect are added the unfortunate foibles of a vanity without bounds, and a jealousy capable of discolouring every object." Even when Mr. Adams, at the close of Washington's presidency, was running, as he supposed, as the undisputed candidate of his party for the presidency, there was an arrangement secretly working to reverse the relative positions of himself and Mr. Pinckney, by the dropping at the last moment of an electoral vote of the former."It is true," says Mr. Hamilton, after admitting that this plan had actually been started, "that a faithful execution of this plan would have given Mr. Pinckney a somewhat better chance than Mr, Adams; nor shall it be concealed that such an issue would not have been disagreeable to me, as indeed I declared at the time in the circle of my confidential friends."t

Mr. Pickering, who had been promoted by General Washington from the war to the state department, after the declination of it, as he himself tells us, by" several of the first characters in the country," possessed a temper so constructed, as to make its nice fitting in with that of Mr. Adams a thing most unlikely. Strictly honest,-for, though his pecuniary relations with government were impeached upon his removal, he was able thoroughly to vindicate himself, energetic and industrious, and with much acquaintance with the domestic situation of the country, though, as Mr. Adams says, very ignorant of Vattel, and all that Vattel wrote about, he was at the same time cold and consequential in his demeanour, irascible and churlish in his temperament,‡ severe and constant in his prejudices, and indisposed to yield to the President that deference which he exacted for himself. No piece of mechanism could move glibly when the teeth of its principal wheels were so placed as to cause a continual jump whenever they came together. This Mr. Hamilton, when defending Mr. Pickering's course, concedes: "Nor was it the disposition of this respectable man, justly tenacious of his own dignity and independence, to practice condescensions towards an imperious chief. Hence the breach grew wider and wider, till a separation took place."§

Mr. Adams, in 1808, in a letter confidential on his part, but afterwards disgracefully spread before the world by the party to whom it was addressed,

gives a notice of Mr. Pickering's character, which shows very plainly the points at which they rubbed. He is extremely susceptible of violent and inveterate prejudices, and yet, such are the contradictions to be found in human character, he is capable of very sudden and violent transitions from one extreme to an opposite extreme. Under the simple appearance of a bald head and straight hair, he conceals an ardent imagination, envious of every superior, and impatient of obscurity." The "bald head and straight hair," as Mr. Pickering afterwards remarked, were hardly fair subjects of criticism; and perhaps Mr. Adams, in the fever of defeat, took an undue satisfaction in pinning to his secretary the charge of fractiousness under which he himself had suffered but be this as it may, the disclosure throws no little light upon the tempers of the President and the Secretary at the time when they were coupled together in the government harness.

Nor was the roughness of the action of the two principal characters of the administration allowed for by any particular softness or elasticity in the rest. Mr. Wolcott, who held the treasury, was a man of sound sense, of great business fidelity, and of excellent personal character. On him Mr. Adams' peculiar confidence was bestowed, and one of the last acts of the retiring President, as will appear, was to confer upon his ex-secretary a judgeship, which was accompanied with a note, expressive of sentiments which he certainly would not have given utterance to, had he been aware that the party to whom they were addressed, had been at the bottom of the intrigue for his political annihilation. Mr. Wolcott, however, was not likely to soften Mr. Adams' aspe rities, or to make his infirmities appear less offensive. It is but right to say that, in all other matters but this, in which he allowed his devotion to Mr. Hamilton to overcome his loyalty to the President, Mr. Wolcott's management of his office was accompanied with great fidelity, as his whole public life was with skill and energy.、

66

Mr. McHenry, who, with Mr. Pickering and Mr. Wolcott, made up the Hamiltonian wing of the cabinet, Mr. Hamilton himself says, was sensible, judicious, well informed, of an integrity never questioned, of a temper which, though firm in the support of principle, has too much moderation and amenity to offend by the manner of doing it;" and Mr. Wolcott tells us that even Mr. Adams, after turning Mr. McHenry out, writes to him (Mr. Wolcott) to say to Mr. McHenry that he considered him "a gentleman of agreeable manners, of extensive information, and great industry; that he verily believed your (his) hands were pure, meaning, as I understood him, that he reposed entire confidence in your integrity."t

Mr. Stoddart, the Secretary of the Navy, who, when the term was half over, was, under the act of Congress constituting that department, added to the cabinet, whether it was from the fact of his nomination having sprung from the President himself, or from his own personal tendencies, was throughout a moderate, though firm, opponent of Mr. Hamilton's policy; and as indifferent between the two interests may be classed Mr. Charles Lee, the Attorney

• Cunn Corresp., Letter of Nov. 25, 1808.

† 2 Gibbs' Wol., 410. Mr. Wolcott, however, (Ibid. 315) hints that Mr. McHenry " was not skilled in the details of executive business," and that "the diffidence which he feels exposes his business to delays, and he sometimes commits mistakes which his eneinies employ to impair his influence."

Mr. Wolcott, in a letter to Mr. Ames, dated Dec. 29, 1799 (2 Gibbs' Wol., 315), thus describes him. "Mr. Stoddart is a man of great sagacity, and conducts the business of his department with success and energy; he means to be popular; he has more of the con fidence of the President than any officer of the cabinet. He professes to know less than he really knows, and to be unequal to the task of forming or understanding a political system: he will have much influence with the government, and avoid taking his share of responsibility."

General, who, though a lawyer of much excellence, and a man of great worth, took but little part in politics, but whose judgment, as was complained by some of his associates, was too apt to be swayed by what has never been an uncommon complaint among his countrymen-an undue idea of the importance of the ancient commonwealth from which he came.*

Mr. Gibbs, in his late very valuable book, has given with great fairness all the materials in the Wolcott papers from which Mr. Adams' relations to his cabinet can be judged, though I regret that the conclusion at which he arrives is very different from that to which I feel myself forced. Even from this ex-parte case, it is clear, that the secretaries, during the whole period of their official service, were cognizant of a plot for the overthrow of their chief; that they not only did not disclose this, but did their best to promote it; and that they both directed the public counsels to its furtherance, and without stint disclosed the confidential proceedings of the President himself, to supply it with fuel. A parallel to this, it is true, is found in the treatment of James II. by Churchill and Sunderland; and of Napoleon by Talleyrand and Fouche, but even to these extreme and revolutionary cases, no term short of ill-faith can be applied. It is argued that the cabinet saw that the President's course was inimical to good government, and that, therefore, they had a right to oppose him. Certainly they bad, if they had first resigned, and then, when in opposition, respected the sanctity of official communications. The fact that they owed their appointment to a preceding administration, did not make it less necessary for them to be true to that under which, for the time being, they held office. Even in the factious times of the Duke of Newcastle, a resignation was considered a condition precedent to opposition. Mr. Pitt resigned when he could not get up a war against Spain. Mr. Fox the elder, rapacious as he was, resigned, because he was not to know what became of the secret service money. Mr. Canning resigned, because he could not co-operate with the measures against the Queen; and Mr. Stanley and Sir James Graham resigned, because they could not assent to the reduction by Lord Grey of the Irish Church income.

They resigned, because they considered it inconsistent for them to continue in an administration which they had determined to undermine, or to pretend allegiance to a chief whom they had determined to overthrow. Lord Thurlow's secret negotiations with the Prince of Wales, during the first illness of George III, though unaccompanied, as was said, by a disclosure of the plans of the ministry, were yet so highly resented, not only by Mr. Pitt, but by the whole nation, that the Chancellor not only lost his office, but his political standing. The correspondence of Mr. Wolcott and Mr. Hamilton abundantly shows that a policy even still more devious was pursued by at least three members of Mr. Adams' cabinet. An opposi tion-secret, potent, and vital-was got up at the very council of this unsuspecting presi dent, and his secrets detailed for its nourishment. Thus, Mr. Wolcott, then Secretary of the Treasury, on June 16, 1800, just at the eve of the selection by Massachusetts of her electors, writes to Mr. Cabot, a leading politician in that State :

"Whatever may be thought of my sentiments, I think it right to communicate them to my friends. It is probable the same opinions will be more generally entertained than avowed; but if General Pinckney is not elected, all good men will find cause to regret the present inaction of the federal party. It is at least in their power to defend their principles, and to assume a position in which, if defeated, they may avoid dishonour. It is with grief and humiliation, but at the same time with perfect confidence, that I declare, that no administration by President Adams can be successful. His prejudices are too violent, and the resentments of men of influence are too keen, to render it possible that he should please either party, and we all know that he does not possess, and cannot command the talents, fortitude and constancy necessary to the formation of a new party."

"It is clear to my mind that we shall never find ourselves in the straight road of federalism while Mr. Adams is President."-2 Gibbs' Wol., 371.

Then again to Mr. McHenry, on July 18, 1800:

"If you will but do your part, we shall probably secure General Pinckney's election. At any rate the prospect is almost certain, that the country will be freed from the greatest pos sible curse, a presidential administration which no party can trust, which is incapable of adhering to any systern, and in connection with which no character is safe."--Ibid. 381.

On August 3, 1800, Mr. Hamilton thus broaches to Mr. Wolcott his proposed pamphlet, a large portion of which is occupied with an exposure of cabinet secrets, and which was intended to destroy the political existence of the chief magistrate of whose cabinet Mr. Wolcott was a member.

“I have serious thoughts of giving to the public my opinions respecting Mr. Adams, with my reasons, in a letter to a friend, with my signature. This seems to me the most authentic way of conveying the information, and best suited to the plain dealing of my character. There are, however, reasons against it, and a very strong one is, that some of the principal