tion to it, ere this Government had completed the third year of its existence.

It has been seen that these outrages were adverted to in the President's speech, in language indicating a firm purpose to carry the law into effect, and a disposition to consult the reasonable wishes of the people as to its provisions. In this spirit, the modifications of the system were suggested by Hamilton; and the bill was enacted, which gave the President authority to employ the militia to execute the laws of the Union.

While these dangerous external influences were in action, efforts were made to encamp hostile officers within the very lines of the Government. During the absence of the President on his Southern tour, the Comptroller of the Treasury died. Either as a mean of embarrassing the head of the Treasury department, or to profit of the influence the Comptroller would naturally have over the large number of subordinates engaged in collecting the revenue; it was thought a great stroke of policy to fill the vacancy with a partisan.

With these views, among others, the Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, Tench Coxe, who was subsequently dismissed from office, was brought forward.

Hamilton, being apprised of the proposed movement, immediately addressed a letter to the President, presenting the then Auditor, Oliver Wolcott, as a proper person to fill the vacancy. His letter is valuable, not only as a tribute due to that meritorious officer, but as an exhibition of Hamilton's views of the principles which ought to govern in appointments to office.

Having passed a well-deserved encomium on the candidate he preferred, as "a man of rare merit; one to whom he avowed he owed much of whatever success may have attended the merely executive operations of VOL. IV.-33

the department," and as having eminent qualifications, as Comptroller, he remarked, "though a regular gradation in office is not admissible, in that sense, in regard to of fices of a civil nature; and is wholly inapplicable to those of the first rank, such as heads of the great Executive Departments; yet, a certain regard to the relations which one selection bears to another, is consonant with the natural ideas of justice; and is recommended by powerful considerations of policy. The expectation of promotion in civil, as in military life, is a great stimulus to virtuous exertion; while examples of unrewarded exertion, supported by talent and qualification, are proportionate discouragements. When they do not produce resignations, they leave men dissatisfied; and a dissatisfied man seldom does his duty well. In a government like ours, where pecuniary compensations are moderate, the principle of gradual advancement, as a reward for good conduct, is perhaps more necessary to be attended to, than in others, where offices are more lucrative. By due attention it will operate as a mean to secure respectable men for offices of inferior emolument and consequence." He added, that "these observations proceeded from an honest zeal for the public good, and from a firm conviction that the prosperity of the department made his particular care (one so interesting to the aggregate movements of the Government), will be best promoted."

Instantly on his return to Mount Vernon, Washington announced to Hamilton that his recommendation had prevailed. Hamilton replied, "This appointment gives me particular pleasure, as I am confident it will be a great and real improvement in the state of the Treasury department.'

Jefferson was doomed to defeat, as to another appoint

* Jefferson wrote Madison, July 27, 1791, "Nobody could know of Tench Coxe's application, but himself, Hamilton, you, and mi,self.”

ment, of which he anxiously coveted the control. A vacancy occurred in the office of Postmaster-General, by the decease of Osgood.

The character of the relations which had existed between Jefferson and Paine has been seen. They were in full, dangerous confidence.* The appeals made by Paine, during the Revolution, had shown the power of his pen; and had familiarized him to the American people. To prompt alarm, and to excite distrust, this pen would be a powerful auxiliary. Should he be intrusted with the patronage of the Post Office department, pervading the whole country, this channel for the dissemination of insurrectionary opinions would be entirely under Jefferson's command; for, both as to politics and religion, Paine and Jefferson had similar views.

Immediately after the return of Washington to Philadelphia, an attempt was made to induce him to confide the Post Office Department to THOMAS PAINE. This movement also failed. "Mr. Jefferson and myself," the AttorneyGeneral Randolph wrote to Madison, on the twenty-first of July, "have attempted to bring PAINE forward as successor to Osgood. It seemed to be a fair opportunity for a declaration of certain sentiments. But, all that I have heard, has been, that it would be too pointed, to keep a vacancy unfilled, until his return from the other side of the water. The contest seems to be between Pickering, Peters, and F. A. Mughlenberg." Colonel Pickering was appointed.

Jefferson to Paine, Paris, March 17, 1789, certain instructions are reasonable beyond the reach of an Englishman, who, slumbering under a kind of half reformation in politics and religion, is not excited by any thing he sees or feels, to question the remains of prejudice. The writers of this country, Jow taking the field freely and unrestrained, or rather revolted by prejudice, will rouse us all from the errors in which we have been rocked."—Jefferson's Works, ii. 446.

CHAPTER LXXV.

THE progress of parties has been traced to the beginning of the second Congress. The Federalists maintained their ascendency in both Houses. The Democrats had formed a more compact union. In the Senate, James Monroe, as stated, had been elected to a vacancy. In the House, as has been seen, Giles filled the place of Bland, who had recently died, justly lamented; and Findley, rewarded for his hostility to the Constitution, and to the Excise, took his seat among the delegation of Pennsylvania.

The course of the opposition during the recent session has been indicated.

The great dividing topic was the ratio in the apportionment of the Representatives among the States. The debate was conducted with the warmth which always attends a question immediately affecting the relative political power of the States: and was decided in a mode, which has proved unsatisfactory to the more intelligent minds of the nation.

The advocates for a large representation were stigmatized as the promoters of a consolidation of the Government. Those of a smaller ratio called themselves-the true Republicans. The latter claimed the merit of founding their ratio on the principle of a compact between the

several independent States, stipulating their relative weight and interest in a particular part of a Federal system. The former, by applying it to the aggregate population of the Union, as one nation, excluded the idea of a compact between the States, and thus, it was charged, annulled the State character, and State rights.

The debate on the bill for the encouragement of the Fisheries took a peculiar direction. The opposition, regarding Hamilton as the prominent advocate for its exertion, contested the constitutional power of Legislative protection; but, as Jefferson had admitted its existence, they surrendered their objections, content with the substitution, in the law, of the word "allowance," for "bounty."

The propositions made by the Secretary of the Treasury to extinguish the debt, are seen to have been opposed in every stage; and opposed on principles which, if they had prevailed, would have proved subversive of all private and public credit. That the opposition to these propositions was instigated by Jefferson, is inferred from the fact, that he was the inventor and propagator of the extraordinary doctrines avowed on that occasion.*

He also, it has been shown, commenced an intrigue to prevent Hamilton reporting to Congress plans for the improvement of the revenue, hoping, thus, to induce his resignation.

The last instance, during this Session, in which this

Madison to Jefferson, February 4, 1790; after a reply to his notion that one generation cannot bind another, Madison observed, "The spirit of philosophical legislation has not prevailed, at all, in some parts of America; and is, by no means, the fashion of this part, or of the representative body. The evils suffered or feared from weakness in government and licentiousness in the people, have turned the attention more towards the means of strengthening the powers of the former, than of narrowing their extent in the minds of the latter." See Jeff. Works, iii. 102, 109.