Randolph and the Yazoo Compromise. It was at this point that Randolph opened his attack on the administration. He disliked Madison greatly, thinking him a trimmer. Most of the Yazoo stock was owned by speculators living in the North, and the representatives in congress, from that section, republican and federalist, were anxious to pass the bill. Jefferson favored it, probably because he wished to build up his party in the North. All this aroused the suspicion of Randolph. He made no objection to reimbursing Georgia for her claim, but he denounced the project to pay the companies. His scathing words defeated the bill at that time, but it came up again in 1805, when the speculators employed Granger, postmaster-general, to lobby for the measure. This angered the sharptongued Randolph, whose bitter strictures were now thrust at the administration which harbored the lobbyist. The republicans were divided into Yazoo and Anti-Yazoo men, the latter being chiefly Southerners. They were nearly equally divided, and Randolph was able to defeat the bill at this time. Although taken up again from time to time, it was not passed. In 1810, in the case of Fletcher vs. Peck, the supreme court held that the Georgia grant of 1795 was a contract, and that the legislature of 1796 could not annul it, and this strength End of the Controversy. Jefferson ened the cause of the Yazoo men. In 1814, when Randolph was no longer a member of congress, it was voted to give the company $8,000,000 in settlement of the claims, and with this the matter came to an end. At first Jefferson kept himself clear of the dispute, and he was too strong to be openly attacked. In 1804 he was reëlected president by 162 to 14 electoral votes, getting all the votes of New England but Connecticut's. For the support of New York, Clinton received the vice-presidency. Jefferson, at the height of his glory, announced in 1805 that he would not be a candidate for another term, and it was generally thought he would make Madison his successor. Randolph and his friends began to make plans to support Monroe, who had acted with them. While the breach in the party was thus widened, Jefferson brought before congress a scheme to acquire Florida, which gave Randolph another opportunity to show hostility to the president. Hope for While Jefferson deferred occupation of West Florida to a more favorable time, he renewed diplomatic efforts to get Spain to yield what we wished; but to his overtures the king returned a Jefferson's haughty refusal. In 1805 Talleyrand entered into the affair, communicating an informal suggestion that we trust Napoleon to conduct negotiations for the purchase. of all Florida for $7,000,000. He meant that the money sent to Madrid should find its way into the French treasury to pay subsidies which Napoleon exacted from prostrate Spain. The suggestion pleased Jefferson, although he hoped to get the Floridas for JOHN RANDOLPH INSURGENT 303 less than the price named, and December 5, 1805, he sent a secret message to congress asking for authority to offer $2,000,000. Randolph, chairman of the ways and means committee, was the man to move a grant; but he was obdurate. His influence with the committee was great, and he induced them to report in favor of measures of defense, saying he would never vote a penny to buy territory which we justly owned. The house overrode him, voting after a long debate, 72 to 58, that the money be placed at the president's disposal. But so much time was consumed in discussion that the opportunity was lost. When the suggestion was made, Napoleon needed money. Within four months he won the victories of Ulm and Austerlitz and dictated the treaty of Pressburg, and his coffers were overflowing. He accordingly refused to bring pressure to bear on Spain. Shorn of his From that time, 1806, Randolph was in open opposition. Now came an unexpected development. His followers would support him when he appeared as a mere critic of one of the administration measures, but when he was an acknowledged insur- Randolph gent they began to fall away, fearing the power and Strength. popularity of Jefferson. Of the ablest and truest were Nicholson, of Maryland, Macon, of North Carolina, the speaker, and Monroe. Jefferson sought to detach them from their leader, and succeeded with the first by appointing him a federal judge. The second remained unmoved, but the congress elected in 1806 was against Randolph, and Macon was not reëlected speaker. His defeat insured a new chairman of the ways and means committee. Monroe acted with Randolph until the election of 1808 elevated Madison, Jefferson's choice, to the president's chair. In 1809 an arrangement was made, through Jefferson's aid, to make Monroe secretary of state under Madison, an agreement consummated in 1811. Randolph, shorn of his strength, continued to annoy Jefferson. In the house none dared encounter his withering scorn, and he had his way in debate. The president wisely ignored the attacks, although he probably winced. in secret under them. The retirement of the annoyer in 1813 to make place for Jefferson's son-in-law, Eppes, only interrupted Randolph's career. He was reëlected in 1814, and with a short interruption served in congress until 1829, an able but eccentric free lance and sometimes a nuisance. THE SCHEMES OF AARON BURR When Burr saw his career ended in the East he turned to the West. Had he settled in New Orleans, or some other city in which a duelist was not unpopular, he might have risen to professional and political prominence. But his ambition looked to larger things, and he wished to found a state of his own in the West. For such an adventure he had genius in leadership, but he Burr Turns to the West. lacked men and money. The first he hoped to get in the West and the latter from either England or Spain. Object Louisiana? Historians are not agreed on the nature of his plans. He was indicted for treason in that he attempted to wrench Louisiana from the union and set it up as an independent state. Most of Was Burr's his contemporaries believed him guilty as charged, and some living historians accept the same view. According to them he was to collect 1000 men on the Ohio, reach Louisiana about the time the territorial legislature declared the province independent, and with the connivance of General Wilkinson, commanding the union forces there, establish his supremacy. It is known that he tried to get money for this purpose from the English minister and failed, and that he then tried to get it from Spain, where he also failed. He promised England to place his new state under English protection, thus opening a vast field for British commerce. He told Spain that his state would present a useful barrier between the United States and Mexico, then in Spanish hands. It is also known that he was in close conference with Wilkinson, who was capable of any treachery. The other contention is that his real purpose was to conduct, in coöperation with a band of New Orleans adventureres, a filibustering expedition against Vera Cruz and Mexico City. He did, Or Mexico? unquestionably, tell some of his followers this was his object, and he had maps and other information about Mexico which seemed to substantiate his words. He revealed this plan to some of the most influential leaders of the West, Andrew Jackson among others, and won their approval; for Spain was much hated in this quarter. To the plainer people of the West he spoke of a colony on the Red river, where he had acquired a large land grant, but this was admittedly a subterfuge. The real controversy is as to whether his conspiracy was aimed at Louisiana or Mexico.1 If it was at the former, Burr lied when he spoke of the latter; if at the latter, he lied when he spoke of the former. Probably we shall never know in what respect he told the truth. Wilkinson testified that the conspiracy was against Louisiana; but Wilkinson's word is not ordinarily to be taken. He was a pensioner of Spain, and was concerned in most of the plans to separate the Mississippi valley from the United States. Wilkinson shared whatever guilt Burr incurred, and he was talking to clear himself; but this was true of some of those who testified that Mexico was the objective. It must be remembered, also, that it is possible that Burr meant to do both of the things alleged. It was quite within the power of his audacious imagination to hope to secure Louisiana first and then operate against Vera Cruz. 1 For the view that Louisiana was Burr's objective the best authority is Henry Adams, History of the United States, III, chs. 10-14. For the other view see McCaleb, The Aaron Burr Conspiracy. BURR'S ACTIVITY 305 The Scheme Be this as it may, Burr gave himself earnestly to his scheme, going hither and thither in the West, collecting boats, supplies, and men at Blennerhassett Island, near Parkersburg, West Virginia. November 15, 1806, was the date set for their departure. Fails. Rumor was rife all through the West that he would attack New Orleans, and in October, he was indicted for treason in Kentucky. As no positive evidence could be adduced he was acquitted, and continued his preparations. But the indictment checked volunteering, and he could not set out on the appointed day. It was an untoward event; for at New Orleans the situation favored success, if Burr had designs there. The legislature was about to meet, and Wilkinson had taken his army to the Texan frontier, leaving the city unprotected. If the adventurer had appeared with 1000 men, as he promised, the city would have been at his mercy. But the men were wanting, and Wilkinson, able to take care of himself in an emergency, decided to desert a failing cause. He informed Jefferson of a conspiracy to seize Louisiana, but concealed his connection with it. He hastened to the city and noisily gave orders to make the place safe against assault. The president, meanwhile, received Wilkinson's letter. He had heard rumors against Burr before that, but took no action, lest friends of the accused charge him with persecuting a political rival. But now the charges were definite, and he sent a proclamation through the West for the arrest of all conspirators. Burr's friends warned him that it was coming, and hastily gathering all his resources, sixty men and thirteen flatboats, he set off for New Orleans in the last days of the year. He still counted on Wilkinson, but when he learned at Natchez how vain was this reliance he abandoned his followers to their fate, and, disguised, sought to escape through the forest to West Florida. At Fort Stoddert, when nearly across the boundary, he was recognized, arrested, and sent to Richmond, Virginia, for trial. Arrest of Burr. Burr's Trial. The case aroused wide interest. Chief Justice Marshall presided at the hearing and John Randolph was foreman of the grand jury which presented Burr for trial. Both men were bitter enemies of Jefferson, and seemed to wish Burr's acquittal. By the constitution, treason is levying war against the government, or giving aid and comfort to the enemy, and two witnesses to the same overt act are necessary for conviction. Marshall ruled that a man must be present when the overt act was committed in order to be guilty of treason within the meaning of the constitution. As Burr was in Kentucky when his followers assembled on the Ohio river, he was not guilty as charged, although it was well known that he planned the whole movement. The ruling was fatal to the prosecution, and Burr was acquitted. Luther Martin, leading lawyer for Burr and long an enemy of Jefferson, outdid himself in making it uncomfortable for the president. One expedient was to summon Jefferson to testify Clash between the Executive and the Judiciary. and to bring certain papers with him. The summons was disregarded on the ground that the president was not to be at the command of the federal courts. Marshall was a bold judge struggling to establish the independent power of the judiciary, and in this notable case, in which the executive appeared as prosecutor, he went as far as he dared go in his attempt to make the president do the will of the court. In refusing this subpoena, Jefferson, as Adams in the case of Dr. Cooper, 1800, and other presidents at later times, laid out the line beyond which the court was not to go. RELATIONS BETWEEN ENGLAND AND THE UNITED STATES When Burr took up his Western schemes, England and Napoleon were joined in the final struggle to determine the destiny of Europe. America Trade Restrictions and Im Each striving to cripple the resources of the other came at length to attempts to restrain the trade of neutrals. As Napoleon after 1806 was dominant on the continent from the Adriatic to the Baltic, the only important neutral was the United States, whose citizens for a time reaped large profits from the sale of American products and by carrying freights between European ports. American ships were rapidly built, and foreign ships were transferred to American registry, to the discomfiture of British owners, whose own profits were lessened by the high insurance they must pay in the dangerous days of French licensed privateers. The mobile sailor population of the world was also drawn into the American service, so that not only the British merchant marine but the British naval ships also suffered for lack of service. Out of this situation grew regulations to impede the American neutral trade, and a greater activity in pressments. impressing sailors on American ships. The weakness of the American navy, under Jefferson's pacific policy, invited these discriminations. Impressment rested on inalienable citizenship, held at the time by all the nations of Europe. America, as a new country, held for transferable citizenship, and the naturalization laws of Grounds of the United States were framed on that basis. But in Impressactual practice neither party to the controversy confined itself strictly to the principle at stake. Sailors on British. ships frequently deserted in American ports, took out naturalization papers, and shipped on American vessels without much concealment. and with open approval of the American population. Such duplicity was not to be endured by the mistress of the sea. British ships-of-war retaliated by boarding American vessels, mustering the crews on deck, and taking off all whom they chose to declare British subjects. Sometimes they took men who were undoubtedly American born. Some ment. |