The party press.

Influence of the French Revolution

on America, Schouler's United

States, I, 262-279.

Jefferson, personally, was not opposed to the existence of a strong national government; as President, he certainly never hesitated to use whatever powers the Constitution could be construed to give him, and some powers, indeed, which no construction could read into that document (p. 315); but he objected strenuously to the exercise of those functions by Hamilton and his allies. With his love of individual liberty, he saw the government every day trenching more and more on the rights of the individual. He thought he saw a determination to build up a strong government resembling a monarchy, if not a monarchy itself. He lost no opportunity to bring the charge of monarchical tendencies home to his opponents; for himself, he stood for republican principles, and the party which gathered about him gradually assumed the name of Republican. Hamilton and his followers continued to bear the designation—so ill befitting them - of Federalists, a name which had proved powerful in the struggle for the ratification of the Constitution.

Jefferson was the first to recognize the power to be exercised by the newspaper press. Through his influence was established the National Gazette, edited by Philip Freneau, a literary man of ability, who occupied the position of clerk in Jefferson's department. A furious attack was at once begun on Hamilton and the Federalists, in which even Washington was not spared. Their defense was feebly essayed by the Gazette of the United States.

200. The Neutrality Proclamation, 1793. - On the first day of February, 1793, the French Republic declared war against Great Britain, and began a conflict full of danger to the United States as well as to the people of Europe. Indeed, from this time until 1823, the history of the United States was largely influenced by the course of events on the other side of the Atlantic, and at times it may even be said to have been dominated by European political complications. Jefferson had been United States minister at Paris at the outbreak of the French Revolution;

1793]

The Neutrality Proclamation

275

he had left France almost immediately afterward, and had therefore been personally acquainted with the French Revolution only in its earlier and better period. He sympathized with the efforts made by the French revolutionary leaders to exalt the rights of the individual as against the control of government; that was precisely what he was laboring to bring about in America. Hamilton, on the other hand, distrusted the people, hated democracy, and had no sympathy for France. The cabinet was therefore divided on this question as well as on others, and for precisely the same reasons. This was the more unfortunate as the position of the government was full of peril. The Treaty of Alliance with France (p. 190) provided that each party should guarantee to the other its territorial possessions in America. According to the letter of the treaty, therefore, the United States was bound to defend the French West India Islands against British attacks. Washington laid the case before his advisers and asked whether the treaty was still in force, in view of the overthrow and execution of the French monarch with whom it had been made. Jefferson replied that it was still in force. According to the political theories contained in the Declaration of Independence, which form the basis of the American political system, the government of a country is merely the instrument by which the sovereign power, the people, carries on its affairs. Bearing this in mind, it is difficult to see how he could have given any other answer. To Hamilton, however, to whom governments were everything and the people nothing, the case seemed to be equally clear on the other side. Political expediency, nay, the existence of the United States, demanded that she should not take sides in the tremendous conflict now approaching. The Recognizing this, Washington decided to issue a procla- Neutrality mation of neutrality defining the position of the United tion, 1793. States, and warning all American citizens against commit- MacDonald's ting hostile acts in favor of either side (April 22, 1793). This proclamation is of the very greatest importance in the

Proclama

Documents, No. 13.

Genet in the United States.

Controversy with Great Britain, 1783-93.

history of the country, as it was then first definitely laid down as a policy that the United States was to hold apart from the wars and politics of Europe. It proved to be very difficult to carry out in practice, and the difficulty was not in any way lessened by the conduct of the French agent in the United States, the "Citizen Genet."

Genet landed at Charleston on April 8 and at once began to fit out warlike expeditions, as if the United States were French soil: he armed privateers, commissioned them, and directed their masters to send prizes into United States ports for condemnation. He then set out for Philadelphia, and his journey resembled a triumphal progress. Clubs were formed on the model of the Jacobin Club of Paris, and extreme democratic ideas were zealously cultivated. Fortunately, however, Genet was a very imprudent man, and soon mixed himself up in actions which justified the government in asking for his recall. This request was at once granted; for the party that had sent him to America was no longer in power in France, but had been replaced by a much more radical element. Curiously enough, it does not appear that Genet, or Fauchet his successor, called upon the government to fulfill the provisions of the treaty, a demand which would have been very awkward to meet.

The Federalists at once endeavored to disgrace their opponents by calling them democrats; and the Republicans charged the Federalists with leanings toward England, and branded them as the British party. There was some truth in this latter contention, as the Federalist party was strong in the commercial centers of the North, whose trade was mainly with Great Britain. Notwithstanding their fierce and growing dissensions, Jefferson and Hamilton both implored Washington to serve another term; he was unanimously re-elected, and John Adams again became Vice-President (1792).

201. Relations with Great Britain, 1783-94. The treaty of peace of 1783 had secured the independence of the United States and had given it adequate boundaries; but

1794]

Relations with Great Britain

277

it had left unsettled many weighty questions, and some of its more important provisions had not been faithfully observed. For instance, legal obstacles had been placed in the way of the collection of debts incurred before the Revolution (p. 228), and Great Britain had refused to surrender many posts in the northwest, whose retention was a standing threat to the settlers in that region. The British had also taken away large numbers of slaves contrary to the treaty, according to the American interpretation of it (p. 229). The controversy had reached a dangerous point, where slight additional irritation on either side might easily lead to war; and, on the other hand, the United States was now in a position to enforce its treaty obligations.

France,

Great Britain,

and the

Meantime, the war between France and Great Britain had given rise to another cause of complaint. In May, 1793, the French ordered the capture and condemnation of Neutrals, neutral vessels carrying provisions to British ports, on the 1793. ground that provisions were contraband of war, or goods which could not be supplied to a belligerent except at the risk of seizure by the other belligerent. The British government soon adopted a similar policy. In those days there also existed an agreement between the leading European powers to the effect that a neutral could not enjoy in time of war a trade which was prohibited to it in time of peace. This was called the Rule of War of 1756, or, more briefly, the Rule of 1756. The Americans were not allowed to trade with the French West Indies in time of peace, but as soon as the war broke out those ports were opened to them. In November, 1793, the British put this rule in force against American shipping. As the Americans were not permitted to trade with the British West Indies, this action practically closed the commerce of that region to them. With the outbreak of the war, another and even more irritating contention arose over the right of the British to stop American vessels on the high seas and remove from them British seamen for service in British men-ofwar; the more serious phase of this impressment contro

Jay's Treaty,

1794.

Winsor's

America,

VII, 466

471;

Schouler's

United States, I, 304-311.

versy will be considered later on (p. 323). Affairs had reached a point where war seemed certain. In March, 1794, Congress laid an embargo for thirty days on shipping in American ports, which was afterwards extended for another thirty days. A bill was also brought in providing for non-intercourse with Great Britain, and was defeated in the Senate only by the casting vote of the Vice-President. A word from Washington, and the nation would have cheerfully plunged into war.

202. Jay's Treaty, 1794. Washington determined to make one more effort to settle these questions peaceably; he appointed John Jay, Chief Justice of the United States, minister to Great Britain to negotiate a new treaty. Probably a better choice could not have been made. Jay had had much experience in diplomatic affairs, was a man of the highest honesty, and one of the least self-interested men

John Jay

in public life. After a long and difficult negotiation, he signed a treaty (1794) whose publication at once. aroused fierce animosity in the United States. By this instrument the British government agreed to turn over the posts on June 1, 1796; joint commissions were to be appointed to settle the question of debts, the indemnity for the negroes who were taken away, and to determine boundary disputes on the northeastern frontier; but on the questions of neutral trade and impressment the British government would not yield. The most objectionable provision of the treaty was the twelfth article. This opened the ports of the British West Indies to American vessels, pro