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Libris
OGDEN
eg* |
.
'
THE FOUNDERS
THE FOUN-DEKS
OF
WITH
BY
CHAELES MACKAY
AUTHOR OF
'
LIFE
AND LIBERTY
IK AMERICA,
ETC.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
I.),
II.),
.....
.
.
. .
68
JOHN ADAMS,
.143
208
293
THOMAS JEFFERSON,
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.
JAMES MADISON,
......
. .
323
353
INDEX,
....
429
1CS9C96
THE FOUNDERS
OF
WASHINGTON".
PART
IT
is
I.
men who,
"
achieve greatness
or
have
it
thrust
upon
them," that
they do not
come
marks
of their destiny
upon them that no sign upon their foreheads, no nimbus or aureole of glory around their baby faces, proclaims to the generation in which their lot is
cast that such little
germs
of
humanity are
to be-
come dangerous
original
to
Were
it
otherwise,
of the
birth,
many
plots
of those who,
if
permitted
what Dante
calls
the
mezzo del
the
cammin
of
possession
any extraordinary
qualities
of
Yet
this obscure
man was
as
much
a blind instrument
in the
hammer
the
hands
that welds
now
remains.
It
was
of primi-
had a steep
near
if
roof
and
far
projecting
tall
so
to
the
ground that a
man
stand-
WASHINGTON.
ing underneath.
It consisted of four large
-
rooms
ground floor, and as many in the attic. Here resided a wealthy and highly respectable
on
the
planter,
Mr
many
then
rivers,
fertile
little
Mr
Washington was
and had
By
Jane Butler,
whom
whom
Laur-
survived.
in
1728, he
married
reigning belle
and
toast
progress through
life
and graces more endearing than physical beauty, and was the true friend, adviser, and consoler of her husband.
mental virtues
On
1732
the
22d
of
February
it
could
its
father
its
common
The
to
occasions.
child
name
of George.
The
The mother
lived to
see
its
name
illustrious,
and
to
and potentates
Soon
father
removed
to a better house
of the
on an estate in
Stafford
Rappahannock,
Here
and a
prosperous colony.
held
of
their
to be descended
De Wessingtons
who
"
first of the
county of
Durham
England,
came over
race
The
who
John and
John was the grandfather of Augustine He Washington, and came to Virginia in 1657.
Andrew.
was an ardent
politics,
Cavalier,
disgusted
with
English
and revolutionary
He
WASHINGTON.
handed or by accident, but with money enough to purchase lands and slaves, and with the design
of sharing the
congenial society of
quitted England
many
for
brother
Cavaliers
who had
the same
reasons as himself.
He and
New
World, and
it
"
shot,
;
they fished
they were
and
habits,
spoke
of
England as
their
in English politics,
Puritanism
both
in
and
and looked with aversion upon the airs which it gave itself
Laurence,
Mr
family
sent to
years older
fifteen,
than
George
was
England when
to pick
society.
He
gloss
of
fashion
accomplished
in manners
and
conversation
this time a
George, by
to acquire
boy
of eight,
common
school
tenant,
He
never re-
He
acquired no ac-
smattering of French
proficiency in
much
at-
Though
little
indebted to
was
enough to think
that his
education was
completed.
gout
in
the
year,
stomach when
he
George
to
was in
care
of
his his
twelfth
was
left
the
widowed mother
a
aided,
however, by Laurence,
young man
of
whom
Laurence, with
an expedition to the West Indies to repel the aggressions of the Spaniards and
In this regiment
WASHINGTON.
he obtained a captain's commission
;
and in a short
and friendship
of the
was in honour of
of
residence
name
came
of
tained.
Two
to the conclusion
schoolboy.
He
and
to
commence
But
his
mother
when he
decided
to
Washington was
it
made
his
duty to
He
varying them
lads
when they
falling
feel the
impulses of manhood,
by
fits
young man
if
into poetry,
or even into
verses
to
rhyme
though,
his
mistress's
diary.
Even
;
stern
"
was
not, at
"
;
all
demonstrative
;
repelled
than
courted
intimacy
was slow
in forming friendships,
though
made
and as
far as the
and occasional
fits
of violence of temper.
his elder brother's
He,
pride
was
a
pattern young
man
un-
sympathetic
a favourite
with
all
old
;
people for
dis-
and not
tolerated
At
sixteen years of
up
for his
guidance through
life
a code of laws or
precise,
very (what in
much
in the
Benjamin Franklin.
the
'
had
that
fallen
"
George Washington's birth, under the young man's notice, and given " canny turn to his mind which always dis-
tinguished
of his
life.
WASHINGTON.
Among
cousin of
Wash-
Thomas Lord
Fairfax, agent to
and man-
by a charter
his
father's
of
King Charles
II.
In the year of
Anne,
and by
closer
this
means
connection.
upon the scene and although at the time that he and George Washington came into intimate per;
was old enough to be Washington's grandfather, there were so many points of sympathetic contact between them as to lead to as
sonal relationship he great a degree of friendship as was possible between
of
and
fertile,
or
10
their
own by
new
countries even
more than
in old, is considered
Young Washington had mathematical knowledge enough for making and his taste as well as talent accurate surveys
;
Lord Fairfax
to appoint
him
men
In young countries, young more promiuent parts than in old ones. play
The struggle for life in the wilderness, with its wild beasts and wilder men the face-to-face con;
flict
is
try surrounded
by law,
protection,
and
security,
they would
still
be under tutelage.
If such
young
men
of
and among
where the
contact
civilised
man and
often
vigour
if
is
to
wisdom,
it
be not a part of
first
appointed George
tall,
Washington
fond of rural
to this
post,
was a
gaunt, bony
He was
and
sports,
WASHINGTON.
hounds, and aspired to lead the
life
1 1
of an English
nobleman in a country where he was the only noble, He had in though by no means the only gentleman.
his
youth run a
officer in
brilliant career in
English society;
was an
the
'
"
two papers
to the
Tatler,'
;
by
popu-
larity
lady of rank, to
fortune.
whom he
accepted
young and
He was
fixed
the luxuries
Suddenly the fickle fair one changed her mind. She had seen some one since her betrothal whom
tune.
The fortunate
some one
;
"
baron
and
to
and ceased
to be a lady.
The unhappy
fascinating
flirt
lover, to
who had
shook
off
the
feet,
and
New
it
it.
World.
He was
so well that he
12
"
stanch
foxhunter.
The
neighbourhood abounded with sport. But foxhunting in Virginia required bold and skilful horsemanship.
He
He
him
and made
him
Such was Washington's earliest friend, by whom he was first introduced to the active business of
life.
The surveyorship was eagerly accepted and in the month of March 1748, having completed
;
Shenandoah
a young
company with
of
man
two-and-
twenty
lordship's cousin.
He was
"
and enjoyed
roughing
time
in the wilder;
of sleeping
of
waging
might
and
Indians
;
of fording streams
when swollen
into floods
and
He had no
Irving.
particular
Washington
WASHINGTON.
taste for the beautiful or the romantic, but
he had
He was
veyor.
He
;
detected
the
best
"localities"
at
of
glance
studied
of
the qualities of
the
soil,
the out
;
timber,
the
water
knew where
lots to the
to
lay
building lots
and farm
best purpose
an occasional good bargain for himself. He received for his services on this occasion a doubloon per diem
a
sum
and
Lord Fairfax
that,
own
much
to
Partly in
manor
acres of arable,
forest land,
and pro-
for the
accommoda-
14
tion of a
The
his lord-
and money to build such a residence as he required, with a low stone building overshadowed by trees,
the former residence of his steward and land-agent.
In
this
slept
"
in
a contiguous
up
had
become somewhat eccentric since the luckless day when he was so cruelly jilted, and that became more and more eccentric with
his advancing years.
; '
He
and
as befitted a
it
qiwndam
'
contributor to the
'
'
Tatler
and,
was
said, to
he took a
new and
old, of
which
he had a considerable
store, all of
which he placed at
Around the
humble dwelling-place in the midst of this splendid domain were numerous wooden outhouses for his
retinue
of
servants,
and kennels
all
He
half-breeds, or the
to carve themselves
homes and
illimitable wilderness.
but
WASHINGTON.
plentiful,
15
and
his conversation
ciate
it,
such as knew
how
to appre-
like the
members
was highly instructive as and especially George well as entertaining. For three years George Washington was a welcome guest at Greenway Court and
;
when he
ing work them in
he preferred to spend
his
own home.
unknown
to
During these years the young man himself under the hands of the Pro-
was gradually acquiring the experience and the habits that fitted him in after-life for the great
part he was destined to
"
play in
the
history of
His rugged and toilsome expeditions in America. the mountains, among rude scenes and among rough
people, inured
at expedients
;
him
to hardships
up
1
his
careless
of the wilderness."
disputes
Washington
Irving.
16
France claimed
the vast
unknown
and
;
of the Ohio,
all
of that river
and in Virginia more especially, which claimed possession of the whole breadth of the
their rights
continent
in
westerly
direction to
the
Rocky
The
better
to
whole inhabited province was divided into military or militia districts, each to
be governed by
The
the
and equipment of the militia. Laurence Washington sought and obtained one of
organisation
But
WASHINGTON.
duties of his
office.
The
had
consumption
having
developed
themselves
with
by a
Thither he repaired in
autumn
of
climate
in the island,
was attacked
He
The
disease
left
face,
who
The
benefit derived
Washington
to her husband.
and he determined
to pro-
Ultimately he countermanded
him
in the
West
of
to die in the
bosom
18
his family.
He was
friend
and
his
brother as to appoint
him one
of
his executors,
and guardian
an
infant daughter.
mingled energy
him
in
all
his
the
settlement of his
brother's
affairs
him
for
some months, and which was almost wholly left to he entered into the him and his co-executors
business of his military appointment
years, with occasional
;
and
visits
for six
to his
of frontier expedi-
Many
more
Greater and
still
whom
it
was
his fortune to
command.
The men
thought themselves
better,
which
is
a very
common
characteristic of the
WASHINGTON.
sailor or soldier, or a subordinate in civil life
;
they
on the chance
spoils
of the way.
On
the inarch,
when
the
breakfast was
first
down
ox or cow
it
whom
it
apologising to the
supper
to both of
ward with
as
much
they were at
home
if
no
settler's
it,
or a little out of
game
tary
laws,"
says
were obstinate,
self-willed,
Washington Irving, they and perverse. Every own crude notion of things, and
to
direct.
Mr
of proper mili"
would undertake
neglected, he
If
his
advice were
slighted,
and
to
would depart
for his
home."
Well was
it,
much
for it prepared
him
for a
after-times in matters of
20
to
As Washington was by
ing an aristocrat, he looked
vagaries
of his
soldiers
birth, training,
and
feel-
with
professional disgust,
This done,
up
of
service.
He
was
in mind,
and having as
the
colonies
of
New
England.
His military
to Philadelphia,,
duties bringing
him
in the year
1756
World,
he
sent an
order to
London
for liveries
little
in unison
were his tastes with those which have since prevailed in America, where not even the President
dares
to
introduce
servants.
"Send me," he
wrote,
"two complete
livery -suits
WASHINGTON.
for servants, with a spare cloak, for
21
and
I
all
necessary
would have you trimmings choose the livery by our (the Washington) arms only, as the field of the arms is white, I think the
suits more.
two
clothes
so,
and a
scarlet waistcoat.
If livery lace is
and two
above servants.
One
set
The cloak
to be
of the clothes.
Three
sword-knots.
Three
silver -and-
One
Proceeding to
New
rough
life
mand, but with that keen eye to the main chance which had been strengthened by the maxims of Poor Eichard became aware both of the beauty and of the wealth of a certain Miss Mary Philipse,
daughter of a great landed proprietor on the banks of
the Hudson.
days
Lower House
of the Virginia
22
Legislature
this lady.
and co-heiress of
detained him
his
New
early
schoolmate's
house
his
home.
Here
society of
who
for
pocket.
But somehow
wooing.
Either
he was
not
ardent
enough or
placed elsewhere
Irving hints
or
perhaps, as
Mr
by way
public
of explanation,
away by
sufficient
his
duties before
he had made
to
However
this
may
New York
was
first to
Williamsburg
opening
to
and afterwards
of the Ohio,
and even
of
domains
of
Greenway
At Winchester,
after a
New
delay
WASHINGTON.
of
23
Miss Philipse
was in the
carrying
field
who was
The
to
and
discouraged in deed as he was in word, and continually urging plans that were universally acknow-
who
refused
upon them.
He had
to establish a line
Ohio.
and
it
The key of the frontier was at Fort Duquesne, had long been the cherished object of Washas
it
ington,
of
his
superiors
in
military rank, both in the colonial service and in that of the British army, to expel the French from that position.
By
the year
1758
the fortunes of
24
The reduction
British,
Nova
Scotia
by the
and the
first
destined to
make an end
Canada
to Great
was
in
November 1758,
failure of
Grant,
commanding a regiment
one division
a second
of
a force
for
was charged
to
make
attack
The
was
onset.
The
garrison
were within one day's march, with a force against which resistance would have been foolhardy, the
French commandant embarked his troops in boats upon the Ohio, blew up his powder-magazine, set
fire
to
the
fort,
Ohio.
Washington, in
command
of
the advanced-guard,
WASHINGTON.
took
possession
25
on
the
25th,
and planted
the
The
first
care
of the conquerors
was
restore
it
to a defensible condition,
and change
its
name
to Fort Pitt, in
statesman.
Upon
its site
now
the Manchester of
"Washington
retired to
laurels.
now found
and
Mount Vernon
With
on his
main chance
of
and his
Curtis, a
She had
had an agreeable
and a quarter
wooing was
shortly after
of a million of
he was married
his
return
bride,
the
home
of the
and
from
26
a country squire, after the English fashion the sole difference of a more fertile
delicious climate than
soil
with
and more
the
home
of his ancestors,
work
for wages.
life,
a period
peaceful
its
own
continuation
dream
of
Alexander Pope
"
Happy
the
care
On
his
own ground."
himself
Mr Washington was
well-to-do
in
the
world, and by the death of his brother Laurence, had become the actual, if not nominal, head of
the family.
By
Mrs
Curtis,
he
acquired a third of
her
late
husband's
in
fortune,
sterling money, and of large landed possessions in Virginia. He thus became not only comfortable but wealthy
which
consisted
of
45,000
had youth,
and strews
its
pathway with
flowers.
WASHINGTON.
27
Writing
in
America
in a high
in a latitude between the and healthy country on one of the finest extremes of heat and cold
;
fish
and in the
The borders
of
it
tide water.
;
the whole
young man
lived en grand
seigneur.
He
kept a
carriage-and-four for
He had
"
costly
favourites.
He had
Eingwood,
dogs
also
for
fox-
diary as
Sweetlips,
Forrester,
known
in
recreation,
Washington never
No
detail of
management
28
and no
cir-
The planter
was
his
own
domain
and
and retainers
of the
domain supplied him and his slaves with all the necessaries, and with some
of
life.
minor luxuries,
the velvets,
were
imported from
England.
The
and
and propagation
of tailors, shoe-
and other
artificers.
;
and "Washington,
who
left
ment
in the
may
office in
Bristol,
subject.
He was
particularly
and attentive
In most respects he
"
"
and by
overseeing
his
own prime
minister in the
WASHINGTON.
29
management
of his little of
acts of oppression
The colour of
own
many
them
in the
commission of cruelty
of their victims
stripes,
seemed in
manner
to court the
of things it
was
their
toler-
duty
to bear
without repining.
Washington
He
of
exacted from
their
amount
work that
;
to perform
and he
them
full
ment, and a
fair
amount
For
on his
and beautiful Potomac, shooting canvas-back ducks on the not far-distant bays and inlets of the Chesapeake, and entertaining hospitably the officers of
the British
their
always
to
Moreover,
of
the
House
Bur-
Virginia,
of
member.
He
30
Americans prize so highly scarcely ever ventured to address the House, and never made a set speech.
It is related that,
first
time,
the
Speaker,
of
Mr
Robinson,
conveyed
to
services he
and that
"
down,
Mr
"
;
Public
affairs
of
Virginia
much
when
their origin,
proportions, and
The conquest and the surrender of Canada were not events of unmixed good, though they had
given very great satisfaction both in England and
America.
A
a
sagacious
prophecy which, though consolatory to the amour propre of the French nation, and in-
WASHINGTON.
tended to be
so,
31
" The triumph into the arcana of political action. " will be fatal to her power of England," he said,
in America.
protection.
The Colonies
She will
call
will
upon them
No more
American
towards
The question of taxing the Colonies was not a new one. It had been suggested
its fulfilment.
That
" He wary Minister, however, would not hear of it. " and one will be a bolder man than I am," he said,
less friendly to
an expedient.
For
my
to
will be
sure
come
into
more agreeably to their own constitution and laws." But the sagacious policy of Walpole did not find and shortly after the favour with his successors
;
close of the
32
Commons
a resolu-
"
may
!
Unhappy
it
it
resol-
Everybody
Everybody
in
was quite
in
was quite
wrong.
that
Even Washington was shaken in his faith the people at home could not err, and began to
anticipate evil.
not the
first of
the colonies to
its
first to
tively
the
money
was vested
and
in themselves,
of taxes
duties
by the Parliament
people
is
who
Here
Commonwealth.
after the other in
The other
de-
number
WASHINGTON.
one," as portrayed
33
'
and
deified in
Poor Richard,' to
idea that the English in America were less sensitive about that sacred place, the pocket, than the
English at home.
On
and de-
of the
Empire than
in the
House
of
Commons
own
as a debate
does in our
day.
who
in after-years
thundered against the measure, and brought his experience of America, where he had served under
arguments
in
vain did
other
and
less
famous
same
side.
The
34
Bill
to
was passed, and the seeds of disaffection, so soon expand into revolution, were planted in America.
most loyal and
aristocratic of colonies,
Virginia,
was
;
New England
member
of the
House
of
of Burgesses, suddenly
the
by introducing
resolutions
of Virginia
the
that
Legislature
of
declaring
the
General
Assembly
power
and that
re-
Mr
tions as inflammatory
all
the
veins,
far in the
vehemence
of his
the danger he
and George III. may here the horrified on his chair, and a cry of " Treason Speaker started
well
;
"
treason
"
!
resounded on
all sides.
"
WASHINGTON.
gerous
if
35
persisted in
and
after a pause
and a low
bow
"
and George
III.
sir,
may
If this
be treason,
for
violent
to
modify his
The Lieutenantthis
by dissolving the Assembly and issuing thus keeping up and ina new election
it
have
allayed.
Washington
;
made no
but in a letter
Mr
colonists looked
upon
this unconstitutional
method
He was somewhat
a disciple of
cautious, as
upon became
their liberties."
so faithful
expressing his
"
own
opinion
"Whatever
may
other (/ think
I may
add} ill-judged
;
measures,
but this I
may
the
36
... As
that
to the
Stamp
bad
first
consequences attending
it
is,
our Courts of
it
is
execution.
And
be sufficient) that
to
pay
for the
many
other cogent
ineffectual."
would be
"
venturing
call
to
On
the
of
the General
five
Assembly
a
of
Massachusetts,
nearly
months
Congress
was held in
New
York, at
which
delegates
colonies
;
attended from
and
after
stormy though
but unani-
mous
and
debates, prepared
petitions to
Mean-
WASHINGTON.
while riots broke out in several
distributors
cities
; ;
37
the stamp
were hung
in effigy
their offices
;
were
the stamps
;
were
seized
while
to be
happy not
hastened
by
resign-
On
was
to
the 1st of
come
in the
mourning
America
At New
pole,
York a copy
of
fixed
upon a
scroll bearing
" "
The
followed by a clamorous
multitude.
Golden, the
Lieutenant-Governor
cially
himself espe-
obnoxious to the
to the British
New
Yorkers, by recomof
mending
withdrew
into
the
on Governor's
it
and garrisoned
for defence
38
He was
into his
it,
paraded
it
high gallows.
carriage,
along
with
another
light to the
the
fort,
all
The news
of these
By
of ingratitude,
but of rebellion
their
were supported in
The Grenville
of
Eockirigham.
The new
WASHINGTON.
39
They
Mr
Stamp
many
friends of the
new Administration
ally in
but the
Mr
Pitt.
He
had no right to tax the Colonies that taxation was no part of the governing or legislative power that
;
Com-
mons
alone
of Great Britain
could only grant what was their own, and not that
which belonged
to the
Commons
of America.
At
Commons
to be suzerain
and supreme in
his subject,
all
other matters.
in reply to
Mr
and
but accused
him by name
of
fomenting a seditious
charge
is
House
America.
The
ments against
as a crime.
this
unhappy Act
is
imputed
to
them
me.
The imputation shall not discourage Three rejoice that America has resisted.
40
have been
rest."
fit
instruments to
make
Pitt's
eloquence
;
made
a great impression
still
upon
the country
perhaps a
greater was
effected
by
Poor Rich-
with
for
all
his
maxims on the
ready
that
service
authority
would take
money
out
all
of
his
the questions
put to him with the fluency and decision of a man who thoroughly understood and felt what
When
:
asked
if
he thought
Stamp Act, he
"
replied
!
No
never
unless
"
To a more
friendly
Mr
Pitt, as to
him by a member who agreed with what was the feeling towards Great
Stamp
in the
to the
Act was proposed, he replied " The best world. The Americans submitted willingly
:
Government
all
of the of
the
Acts
Parliament.
Numerous
as
the
England
nothing in forts,
them
in sub-
WASHINGTON.
jection.
4
at the sole
expense
a thread.
affection for
and paper. They were led by had not only a respect but an They
Great Britain
for its laws, its customs,
and
were
its
manners.
always
treated
particular
regard
'
in
America.
To be an
Old England
man was
of
itself a character of respect, and gave a kind of " And what is the feeling now ? " rank among us."
"
Oh, very
"
much
total
"
If the
you think
will be
consequence
"A
and
America, and
of
all
on that respect and affection." The result of the discussion was, that General
Conway brought
the
carried
by a
large
majority
on inserting a saving clause, to the effect that the Parliament had, and of right ought to
all cases
what-
This
proviso
was
alike
ungracious
and
unnecessary;
similar
to
feeling
that which
indulged by a
42
hungry dog who had received a smart blow on the head for the bone that its master had given it to
pick, growled at the substantial benefit,
of the
on account
insult that
accompanied
it.
Washington,
British Government,
"
of the
Had
"
in a contemporary letter,
it,
more
who were
cordially."
The
satisfaction of
Mr Washington was
premature.
The
unlucky assertion
was destined
no distant time to
reassertion in a
manner
The Administration
of
Mr
Pitt,
looking to the
to the spirit,
and
erroneously thinking
knew, and might have taught his colleagues better that it was against the particular Stamp Act,
WASHINGTON.
rather
43
the
than
against
revenue
The attempt was unfortunate. There were discontent, and latent rebellion in the
it.
as
"
a piece of tesselated
It
pavement without
cement."
included,
as
its
Mr
Charles Towns-
a vigorous supporter of
Mr
Grenville's
this
Stamp Act.
financier,
Under the
goaded
to
auspices of
action
by the
that
continual
taunts
"
of
Grenville,
who
"
asserted
nothing but
British
unworthy cowardice
prevented the
Bill
Parliament
for
was introduced
upon
of
paints,
paper,
glass,
and
lead,
all
British
produce.
The avowed
object
of the
measure was
to provide a
ment
and
stationed in America,
How
44
recorded
and most of
all
to
the
Americans.
The
little
notice at home.
In America
it
All
conspicuous
and
for the
"
Inde-
pendence
was
the
raised,
first
One
of
of
the proposal by
This pro-
In view of
Board
of
Eevenue Com-
A
;
summoned,
was held
in Fanueil Hall.
WASHINGTON.
nard, denounced the Convention as treasonable,
45
it
continued
did not
its
and
separate
of
condemnatory
and
of
the attempt of
Britain
a body
to tax
in
sented
Shortly after
the
opening
of
Parliament, the
The House
of
was
an insult
that
the
Governor
of
be
com-
Act
1767, and to transmit the ringleaders to The House of Commons was England for trial.
in
less vindictive,
to
the
pretensions of
Americans, by
whom
of the
resolutions,
the King.
The Legislature
of Virginia,
in
of
which
session
when
46
the
news
of
and,
making
common
by the
late
Stamp Act,
by the levying of import duties upon tea or any The Speaker was directed to other commodities.
forward these
resolutions
for
concurrence to the
The Gover-
high-handed
manner on
this
occasion.
Without
Mr
House
of Burgesses,
augur
ill
of their effects.
to dissolve you, It
first
manifested
sympathy with
countrymen.
His somewhat
much by
No
man, unless
perhaps
it
may
Few even
Washington was
man
of
genius,
but
WASHINGTON.
plain, rational country gentleman,
47
with an excellent
capacity
for
pushing his
to
way
was not
for
him
any
move
too
initiative
in
matter that savoured of disaffection to the mothercountry, to whose supremacy he was sincerely at-
tached
members adjourned
The
Washington brought
and
drawn up
Mr
George
to
Mason, pledging
who
into the
American colonies
had been levied by the British Parliament. Massachusetts and other Northern colonies had previously
adopted similar resolutions
;
colonies.
It
for
rest
if
satisfied
the British
48
thorough
"
the British
half-measures."
"
men and
nations,
thorough
was successful
resigned,
Early in
1770
the
Duke
of Grafton
office.
His
public
act
as
regards
the
Colonies
was a
Under
Ministerial
all
auspices,
an Act was
passed repealing
America by the Act of 1767, with the exception of the duty on tea. This duty was retained, not for the sake of any
British and foreign goods in
it (for
no tea
made
of
dried
it
raspberry
leaves
of
to consume), but
With the
right
less
view
making the
assertion
of
the
The
WASHINGTON.
English duty was a shilling per
lb.,
49
the American
It
was the
the amount to
which they objected, and not which they were made liable. " The
to
Lord North, speaking the sentiments of George III. rather than his own, "is when the right is denied.
To temporise
mother
-
is
to yield
if
of the
country,
it
be not
now
asserted, will
total
have to be relinquished
cannot be thought of
our
feet."
for ever.
A
is
repeal
till
America
prostrate at
itself
all
when
it
could be
home
Government.
thought
like
At
last, in
himself
of
most half-measures, did more harm than good. The non - consumption of tea in the Colonies
operated unfavourably to the interests of that great
mercantile
monopoly,
the
East
India
Company.
in
Having powerful
friends
and
representatives
50
of tea
payment
of export
duty.
As
the
Company
by the cheapness
principle
or their prejudice
make
large
Britain.
to use
own
betray themselves,
little fleet of
New York
The
and Philadel-
be
much
as a
stores.
and committed an act which expedited the final catastrophe, which the foremost minds in America
had long
foreseen.
When
the
first
tea-ship arrived
was
WASHINGTON.
forbidding the captain
at
51
to
his peril
unload or
cargo.
similar
meeting
was held on the morrow, which the Governor declared to be illegal, and ordered it to disperse. The
meeting refused, and
against
their
if
fellow
citizens.
The
consignees
promised,
it
upon
its
return from
England.
to the people,
set sail
who
Two
other
samples of the
the merchants
tains,
;
refused to buy.
resolved
to
The capreturn
to
after
few
days,
custom-house, or a
to clear the port.
as
an
came
such a conclusion,
it is difficult
to discover.
was resolved
a coup-de-main.
It
52
war
in the harbour
artillery.
The
ships were
moored
It
was
clear moonlight,
when
known
to be leading citizens of
Boston
shouting
"
and
yelling.
One
of
them exclaimed,
"
!
and be-
ing joined by
numbers
amounted
to
and
and
by
the tea-
The
;
authorities took
no steps to presilent;
the ships of
war were
and
Admiral Montague, chief in command of the naval force, who was sitting on shore at the house of a friend,
opened the windows as the daring masqueraders returned from their exploit, and said jeeringly,
"
Well,
my boys, you've had a fine night for your Indian caper but remember you'll have to pay the piper."
!
to
this
occurrence,
WASHINGTON.
53
Washington had been absent on his old battleground, the Indian frontier, to settle some land
claims,
for services
rendered in the
officers
and
Wil-
command.
On
his return to
of Virginia
on
House
Much
curiosity,
felt
to
know how
the news of
At
last it
Act was rapidly passed, called The Boston Port Bill," by which all loading and
An
unloading of goods, wares, and merchandise were to be prohibited in the town and harbour, and the establishment of the customs to be transferred to Salem. This was shortly followed by a second Act, taking the appointment
councillors
of
judges, magistrates,
and
from the hands of the people of Massachusetts, and vesting it in the Crown, such
nominees
to
hold
office
only during
the
Eoyal
54
pleasure.
third
of
to the feelings
sachusetts
alone, but in
or other
offence,
might
to
at
the dis-
cretion
of
the Governor
be sent
some other
even to England.
The House
of
when
official
measures arrived.
postponed
All ordinary
;
business was
immediately
protest
members
the
first
setting apart
as a
day of
fasting, humiliation,
to
and prayer to Almighty God avert from the American people the threatened
and
liberties,
and the
On
still
when
they
in
were
summoned
-
to
attend Lord
Dunmore
the
council
chamber.
As
curt
and decided
less
as his predecessor
urgent
occasion,
lordship
told
them
so
of
in
few
words
that
their
resolution
reflected
impro-
Great
WASHINGTON.
Britain, that
55
The members immediately dispersed, but met private citizens in the evening in the large room
previous
day
that
all,
the
cause
of
one
and urging the expediency and necessity of appointing delegates from each, to meet annually in General Congress to deliberate
on the united
interests
effect
of America.
resolution to the
same
was simultaneously,
and without concert with Virginia, passed by Massaand meeting everywhere with general conchusetts
;
currence, the
first
Congress was
summoned to meet at
or applauded
Washington had
the inhabitants
siderable indignation
and
56
George William,
letter,
urging
grievances.
not.
Ultimately, how-
by the
commit-
Houses
ing.
and
might be goaded
liberties.
to take
up arms
The
rights
lamented the
necessity of taking
ing
declared
attachment to the
;
family,
and Government
desired to continue in
;
entreated
him not
peration,
and
~but
reflect
King
there
could
~be
appeal
WASHINGTON.
57
the
Washington was
chosen as one of
seven
;
and
its
meet-
dleton.
There were
fifty
one delegates in
all
They
met punctually on Monday the 5th of SeptemA question arose as to the mode of votber.
ing,
gates.
Henry entered a
tionalism.
"All America," he
fused into
one mass.
Where
?
and bound-
aries of colonies
They
are all
thrown down.
The
distinctions
between
Virginians,
Pennsylvanians,
New Yorkers, and New Englanders exist " I am not a Virginian, but an American
!
no more.
his Celtic
move
numbers
liberate
of
its
delegates
that
The Congress
one days.
"
It
58
as never
came together on
the world.
before
it
came
When
from America
firmness,
when you
wisdom
and
wish to make
declare and
you cannot but respect their cause, and it your own. For myself, I must
avow
that, in the
world, I
know
Congress in Philadelphia."
It is
known
;
were made
nor does
Nor
that he did
for
and, like
some other
soldiers,
own
Whatever the speeches may have been, the business transacted was of the The first was to issue a manihighest importance.
a set oration.
festo, declaratory of
WASHINGTON.
to resist
59
any
force that
The
concision,
and
decision.
It set to the
forth
the natural
of life,
right
of the
Americans
enjoyment
liberty,
and property.
As
power
on their local
affairs
in their
colonial assemblies.
They consented
to be subject
the
of trade, exclu-
any of the
of
any
legislative
powers in
60
Crown
to
American
Acts passed
by the
British
adding
that
to
such
grievous
measures
hopes
and
that, in
fellow-subjects
in
Great
Britain
would on
revision restore
them
the
passing
of
these Acts,
peaceable measures
first,
to
enter
into
agreement
;
or
to
association,
binding
address
all
colonies
second,
prepare
an
to
all
and
third, to pre-
for-
warded
and
to the British
Gov-
ernment.
in
The hand
of
any
on returning
to Virginia,
whom
man
in Congress, replied
Mr
WASHINGTON.
was foremost
man
dream
in the Assembly.
of
At
this
the
of the over-zealous
at
all
it
and
the imaginative.
Washington,
events,
had
as the only
solution
of
the
difficulty.
" I
am
is
well
he wrote to a
"
ment
of Congress,
desired
North America.
On
warmest advocates
quillity upon and the horrors of
and tran-
constitutional grounds
civil
may
be restored,
discord prevented:'
But
events,
were marching
deprecated
its
;
surely
the
and when
Congress
second
as
to
to be as obstinate as
itself.
One
was
to
62
appoint
on military
for
affairs
of
the post by
frontier
experience,
first
was
elected
chairman.
led to revolution.
Congress, although
it
and dutiful
receive an
"
Though John Adams declared the petition to be imbecile," it had the effect of propitiating the
giving the bolder spirits an opporits
timid, besides
tunity of predicting
failure.
Georgia,
which
aloof, cast in
upon which Congress proceeded form a Federal Union of the thirteen leaving to
its
own
internal affairs,
into treaties
and
alliances,
and
of
regulating ex-
ternal commerce.
in a Council of twelve.
all clearly acts of
if
rebellion
necessary
would not be overwhelmed by for Congress, the power of the mother-country, to adopt means
it
possible
aggression.
WASHINGTON.
63
of
forts,
the provision of
;
military stores
and
to provide
money
as well as
men,
600,000
"
inscription of
credit
of
The
United
and the
the
whole
Boston
which,
New
England
under the
command
of
General Artemus
Ward.
Had
its
commander,
very
summarily dealt
augment the Continental Army, as it now began to be called, but to provide means For for clothing, feeding, and disciplining it.
resolved to
this latter purpose, a
man
in
whom
Congress, the
full confidence,
was
re-
mander-in- chief.
man
in
man
of the Military
Committee.
it
64
from the public, though not from Congress. For even at this early period of American history the
little rivulet
and South,
which in after-times broadened and deepened into a mighty river, and broke out into a torrent of
Civil
War
in
to
display
itself.
to the
command
in General "
Artemus "Ward, a
New
Englander or
"
Yankee
him
But more
more
cordially
if
question was
the
the best
man
Washington made no
to court the
It
was not
for
him
;
and perhaps, with his characteristic prudence, he was not anxious to assume a post of such responsibility,
There
the
appointment,
in
General
of
Artemus
an army
command
Boston
John Hancock
good militia
WASHINGTON.
officer,
65
when he took
it
upon himself
honour.
all its
perilous
he went on to
state
"
:
had no
hesita-
mind
for
had but one gentleman in my the important command, and that was a
us,
and
known
to us
all
a gentleman whose
officer,
and experience as an
talents,
whose inde-
would command the approbation America, and unite the cordial exertions of
Union.
Mr
as soon as he heard
me
Mr Hanoppor-
me an
While I was
and the enemy, he heard me with visible pleasure. But when I came to describe Washington for the
coniniandership, I never remarked a
more sudden
66
and striking change of countenance. Mortification and resentment were expressed as forcibly as his
face could exhibit them."
when
the
question
was
was
brought
divided
;
to
decision.
Though
before
Congress
all
in
opinion,
for ten
the
country was
but unanimous
and
days
were
made by Washington's friends to induce the dissentient members to forego opposition, and start
Washington on his career with all the advantage and prestige to be derived from unanimity of choice.
These
efforts
were
finally
successful
and on the
15th of June 1775, Congress voted by ballot for the appointment. Washington was elected without
a single dissentient, and was
officially
informed of
taking his
at
five
fixed
hundred
thanks
a-month (100).
accepted
"
He
"
returned
very
briefly
the
honour,
not
without misgiving.
Lest,"
he added,
some unto
lucky event
reputation, I
should happen
unfavourable
my
beg
it
may
be remembered by every
this
day
declare,
that
I
do not
think
command
am
honoured with."
WASHINGTON.
67
assuring
He
also
have tempted him to forego his domestic ease and happiness to accept so arduous an employment, he
to
make any
his
profit
by
it.
He
expected,
paid,
however,
that
actual expenses
would be
and
of these
he promised to keep
an exact account.
On
army.
"He
was
in its prospect,
bour
is
and in which perhaps no safe harThe ocean was indeed wide, to be found."
and though he ultimately found was not until after he had been sorely
;
to
countless danreverses,
privations,
discouragements,
of
and
calamities
lose heart
none
and hope, though he often lost faith in He saw the worst and the best his countrymen.
of
human
nature
and learned
in sorrow
and
suffer-
ing, as all
tion, that it is
sional patriot
68
WASHINGTON.
PART
II.
Washington
faculty
of
to excite
inspiring
He was
pre-
eminently truthful,
to
and a man
;
business, slow
of the
make up
his
mind
but
when convinced
was
He knew how
perilous
it
to defy
;
but
effort,
life,
or
his
fame.
He
rightly considered
that
were
great,
the difficulties of
also.
vindicate
out representation
a principle
WASHINGTON.
at
69
cost
home had
the execution of a
of a dynasty.
powerful
by
all
the personal
and authority
of the King,
was obstinately
;
was possible that at some party and the King might find
it
make
In
people.
ocean
British
was
fleet
costly,
tedious,
and uncertain.
the
coasts
;
The
and
but
the Colonies
the vast interior lay behind, and was not only rich
enough
people,
to
supply
all
was virtually impregnable. Besides, England was just out of war with France, and
but
70
however willing
do
so,
to
put
Washington that the true policy of the Colonies was to worry and weary the
children.
It
seemed
to
mother-country
or,
as
Mr
Lincoln phrased
it
in
Upon
this
policy he acted
until he
became a greater even than Fabius himwhich the world has agreed to
of
call
by the name
that
ancient
general.
It
Washington commenced it in the prime and maturity of his days. He was an elderly man when it was brought to a concluwas a long
struggle.
sion, not so
much by
his
own
as
by the help of an unexpected and welcome ally, on whom he had no original right to calculate.
When
battle
first
Philadelphia and
New York
on
his
way
to join the
army.
The
British
five
General,
Gage, shut up in
Boston, with
Artemus Ward
and
man
of Connecticut
Rhode
WASHINGTON.
Island,
71
of
May by
ships
the
of
arrival
Boston
Harbour
of several
war and
men,
and
CO 00
under
the
command
It
of
Generals
to the
came
Ward
now
To prevent
and Bunker's
Hill,
Charlestown, separated
They worked
success,
in spite of a
few shots
them
at early
dawn
by sunrise, or soon after, they had completed The firing the works and mounted their guns.
from the ships aroused Boston
;
had sprung up in a few hours upon the At a council bristling with armed men.
of war, immediately
summoned,
it
was resolved
to
to
lay Boston
in
ashes.
The
of
command
72
all
haste to General
Gage for a proper supply. Meanwhile the Americans were receiving forcements and strengthening their position.
rein-
The
expected.
town
ships of
war
in the harbour.
main struggle was waged, but at a terrible loss, inflicted by troops whom they had been accustomed
to despise as
"
a rabble-rout
first
"
of rustics
and
clod-
hoppers.
It
was the
and
weary war; and though the dear-bought victory remained with the British, the Americans boasted
of
it
it
now, as equivalent
to a defeat.
The
British loss
was 1054,
of
whom
The
officers.
WASHINGTON.
73
American
cans," says
loss
"To
"
the Ameri-
Mr
this defeat
had
enemies.
and consequence in the eyes of their They had proved to themselves and to
and
inflict
the most
harm
in the conflict."
Washington,
accompanied
all
by
of
Major-Generals
on the 21st
had
New
courier, spurring
on in
all
Congress.
battle
of
Asking
were told
of the
Bunker's Hill.
the
militia
quired
how
enemy,
it
with deadly
!
effect,
he quickly
ejaculated,
Thank God
The
liberties of
America
are safe."
On
his arrival in
New
York, he was
received by
Mr
sembly
of
the
who
delivered a congratu-
latory address.
Mr
whom
74
to revolution as to entertain the idea of throwing " off the yoke of Great Britain. Confiding in you,
sir,"
he
"
said,
and
in the generals
mand, we have
American
liberty,
and
American
an accommodation with
the,
mother-country,
you
committed into
your
hands,
and
reassume
the
Washington's
reply was guarded, as became a man who looked both before and after, and never committed himself
to
the unforeseen.
When we
assumed the
;
we
and we
shall
most assuredly
hour,
when
a word of independence, not a word of the mothercountry, in this short and sensible speech.
Washington remained but one day at New York, and proceeded forthwith to Cambridge, near Boston,
where he established
all his
his headquarters,
and devoted
WASHINGTON.
75
and
discipline of
He
ill
ascertained
army amounted
clad,
about
;
12,000 men
ill
fed,
and incohesive
well
to
11,000
visioned.
lation
of
country more
ness,
than
half
and
still
an ancient
their
side,
prestige,
but
either
the Americans.
the
old
country possessed
command
hands
of
the
ocean.
fearful
but Washington
to the
laid their
or
which they had made prove the guiding-star of their conduct. His first great as it impressed itself upon his mind was duty
to
army, as regarded
qualities,
dis-
cipline
and
all
soldierly
to
the
same
76
some-
times taxed his patience and his temper, and sometimes drew out of
him
ebullitions of wrath,
to.
and
New
Hampshire,
New
York,
New
Some had
such
tents
under
trees,
or
in
barns
and
;
camp
and
ly
all,
as
strong-
imbued
of
insubordination,
for
independence."
Having,
by official intercourse with the various generals and colonels of this motley host, ascertained its
true
President
Congress
the same
fill
John Hancock
who had
once
aspired to
representing
manifold
de-
and urging the immediate appointment of a commissary-general and other officers. Above
all
things,
he requested
felt
supply of money, as
already he
WASHINGTON.
of a military chest.
77
But
his chief
annoyance arose
spirit of his
and men.
In another
letter
to
Congress,
months
in
command,
the rank
their
officers of
inclined to retire,
and that
Vol-
and approved
of
the
and sobriety of the colonel, the lieutenant-colonel, and the captain. Connecticut
men
would not
act
under Massachusetts
officers, or
Island commander.
the disgusted
General wrote a
"
gress.
am
to
spirit
which prevails
here.
Instead of pressing to
we
Our
truly alarming
and of
this
General
is
Howe
is
well aware.
No
doubt,
when he
rein-
of the information."
Writing
for
to
his
friend Joseph
as
his
Eeed,
who had
secretary,
short
time acted
private
78
he
ness
with
of
greater
bitterspirit,"
"
Such dearth
public
he
of virtue
such jobbing
and
of
fertility in all
military arrangement
may
end
never be witness to
of these
What
will be the
manoeuvres
beyond
my
scan.
3500 men.
To engage
I
these, I
have
far as fifty
men
will
officers,
am
persuaded,
indulge
many
more.
who have
Such a
mercenary
spirit
may
happen.
am
likely to experience,
no consideration on earth
me
to accept this
command."
had a pre"
Washington,
it
has
been
alleged,
New
Englanders
are called
or
Yankees,"
tants
of
were and
WASHINGTON.
neither
"
79
their
understood
nor
admired
character.
and
admirer, General Greene, who was proud to serve under him, " are exceedingly avaricious. Their
genius
is
with trade.
The sentiment
of
mortals,
but
finding
temper
virtues
and
disposition,
vices, as the
passions
and
common
his
esteem."
There was
whom
whose advice and opinion he was always inclined Trumbull was a Puritan of the Donald defer.
and Balfour
of
Cargill
"
Burley type
"
a wielder of a political
and
who would
ordinary occasions
when
his
religious passions
excited,
was a
pious,
Writing
80
to
Washington to encourage him in his perilous " career, Mr Trumbull said Congress has with one
of
all
events hath
among
us.
Now,
therefore, be
you
strong,
May
;
the
God
of the armies of
His divine
forti-
wisdom and
tude
danger
add success
their attempts to
and
and vain."
sturdy
Washington's
"
familiar
epithet
for
;
this
national
Jonathan
stands
for
The year 1775 produced no great change in the It came to Washington's knowmilitary situation.
ledge, towards its close, that General
Howe, whom
of Boston,
was
Washington
New
WASHINGTON.
place that city in a state of defence.
81
After
many
delays, and much opposition from his councils of war, Washington, on the 4th of March 1776, took
army
commanded
triumph
a triumph, however,
serious reverses
which
and humili-
As soon
army
Washing-
New
But
New York
was
by no means as zealous in the revolutionary cause as New England, and Washington did not meet the popular support on which he
had calculated
and when
it
prudent
Jersey,
to evacuate
through New
had no
Meanwhile a great event, in which Washington share, had fixed upon America the attention
of the world.
On
the
2d
of July
memorable in the history of America, and of Europe also, in which the act that was then consummated
was destined
lump,
82
ment that has not even yet worked itself out the American Congress, sitting with closed doors, decreed
by unanimous vote that the United Colonies were, and of right ought to be, free and independent States."
"
The people
of
of Philadelphia
knew
the
solemn
nature of
was
to
announce
United States
asserted.
The
bell
now
ap-
all
all
The
was held
among
and
of cheerful hope.
On
Inde-
pendence Hall," and publicly proclaimed amid the shouts and acclamations of the multitude.
WASHINGTON.
"
83
wrote
Mr Adams,
"
will
ought to be commemorated,
day
of deliverance,
by solemn
acts of devotion
Almighty God.
pomp and
bells, bonfires,
of the
more."
It
day
for
remembrance in America
and even
the
when
civilised
men
shall
by the
fire-
When the news of this decisive New York, and when bells had been
fired
act arrived at
in
honour
mob
of several
hundred people,
such as in
for
all
any work
destruction,
gathered around a
III.
leaden statue of
the centre of the
King George
"
that stood in
of
known
as Governor's
suddenly
bethought
themselves
that
as
of
king
84
Just
as
after
the
Sedan,
its
when the
Paris
mob
vented
its spite
against
monarch by breaking his bust in pieces, the crowd of New York rushed upon and clomb up the
statue of George III., and, with savage joy in their
work, levelled
it
It
was afterwards
official notifica-
o'clock
of
in
the
brigade
the army.
that this
every
officer
and
and
courage, as
of
is
now
in the
to
power
The Declaration
of
drawn up by Thomas
young Virginian
WASHINGTON.
not
belie.
its
85
in
It
Committee as
regarded
its spirit.
all
has
been
for
clear exposition,
logical
assertion,
though
it
two sentences
"
We
hold that
men
their
endowed
rights
;
by
that
among them are life, liberty, and the pursuit of To sow this formula was to sow happiness."
dragon's
teeth
;
that
secure
their
rights,
instituted
from
tlie
justified the
South-
and led
to the
its
after-success
Rebels
Great
might hereafter happen as against and that in 1861 the Secession of the themselves,
Britain,
as
fairly justified
by
own arguments
86
him of
Before abandoning
New
main body
Howe
Washington wrote a doleful letter to Congress, in which he suggested that it might be better to burn down the city than
in the
beautiful bay,
to leave it standing for the winter-quarters of the " Our situation," he said, under date of enemy.
"
September 3d,
is
truly distressing.
their
minds with apprehension and despair. The are dismayed, intractable, and impatient to
Great numbers have gone off
almost by whole regiments.
cern I
in
militia
return.
some instances
the deepest conof confidence
With
am
obliged to confess
my
want
Our number
Till
of
men
I
fit
for
duty
is
under 20,000.
of
late
had no doubt in
my own mind
I
of
defending
would
have
yet, if the
of."
men would
do their duty,
WASHINGTON.
87
Washington afterwards thought better of the matter. New York was evacuated, and not burned
and the General, anxious, perplexed, sad at
heart,
make
of the
new and
better
men.
pletely
an encounter
detachment of
on
Manhattan
Island, a
New
York,
man
lost
all
command
over himself.
At the
British
first
on his detachment, Washington rode from Harlem Heights to see what was the matter. He was met by a brigade of Connecticut men flying
from their posts in panic without firing a shot. There were but sixty or seventy British and Hessians,
but their fears magnified them into as
dreds
<f
;
many hun-
and they
terror.
fled,
headlong
Losing
self-command at the
Washington dashed
am
"
America
'
!
In a paroxysm of passion
88
darkest
"
moments entered
strong
man's
mind
he snapped his
pistols at
some
of them,
of his
own danger
into the
hands
yards distant,
bridle
of
his
of the enemy, who were not eight had not an aide-de-camp seized the horse and absolutely hurried him
away."
to
no important result
and
retiring
himself
to
the
And
difficult
work
The Connecticut
to
militia
dwindled
volunteers
2000 men;
the
from Delaware and Pennsylvania departed homewards, to the great disgust of Washington and of
his
young
"
friend
and adjutant
general,
Joseph
Reed.
When
"and
his wife,
see
how few
of
the
number who
me, I
am
lost in
wonder and
surprise.
Some
of our
visits,
Philadelphia gentlemen,
who came
over on
on the
hurry.
first
faith in volunteers
WASHINGTON.
89
who
and respect
to
He
finally resolved
urge
however long
the
it
might he
and wrote a
letter to
President, setting
forth
imposed upon
officers
who were
really willing to
fight
and
;
its effect
of eighty-eight
battalions, to be furnished
by the
The pay
of the officers
was
augmented.
until
Each volunteer who engaged to serve the conclusion of the war was to receive a
money without
the land.
The
and, in
pre-
90
scribed period,
to
fill
up the
good
slow.
vacancies.
the
effect
anticipated.
But
their operation
was
was yet far distant. The road to be travelled was dark and stormy, and encumbered by perils that, could they have
to be attained
The end
Washington.
The jealousy
meanest
of subordinate
generals
before
him,
But he held
on the
smaller-minded
justification.
Abandoning the
State of
the
the Jerseys,"
Washington
not
in a
letter
to
by Washington,
of fatal indecision,
mand
Washington was
WASHINGTON.
pained, but held his peace.
ever, to silence
91
He
by a second movement across the Delaware to Trenton, where he surprised and thoroughly defeated a considerable force
of
Hessian auxiliaries
the river to his old quarters, unwilling to try conclusions with the powerful force under Lord Cornwallis that
to
meet him.
But
his victory,
raised his
own
spirits
officers,
The
battle
was fought
of
week
of
was with
difficulty,
and
by the promise
of a
new bounty
of ten
dollars per
weeks
longer.
sufficient
money
soldiers,
who were
for cash
this
to
peril.
Washington in
emergency sent a special messenger post-haste his friend Eobert Morris, a banker at Philaand adding,
it
delphia, setting forth the circumstances, " If you could possibly collect a sum, if
were but
92
pounds,
it
would be
of
service."
difficulties
the
Yet
if
his
men were
and the hope that a better disciplined, mercenary, and more patriotic army might be
mately got together.
less
ulti-
On
him with
all
affairs,
it
accompany-
Happy
"
is
it
Committee,
and
was
dignified
and the
"
said,
civil
he
obligations
by
this
mark
of
confidence,
he
WASHINGTON.
93
was the
preservation of their
first
liberties, so
should be the
thing to be laid
aside
when
General
Howe was
;
Hessian auxiliaries
and expressed
his
amazement
who
their
made war
arms
down
to a ragged
and undisciplined
militia.
Fate,
and Washington's extreme caution, had more amazement of the same kind in store for the British
commander
it
was possible that Washington was as much amazed as himself. But Washington at that time, and to the close of his military career, was the tool of
circumstances
at Waterloo,
;
never
beaten.
He
he threw
;
what he was doing was in constant imminency and finally won the cause failure and collapse
;
America,
sullen
less
by
his
own
and uncertain army, than by the aid of France and last, and very certainly not least, the
;
loss
its
of
patience
of
the
British
Government, and
94
it
entailed.
To narrate
military
all
the
incidents
of
Washington's
operations, until
is
success
finally
crowned
his efforts,
It
must
campaign of
1777
did not
it
commence
until
and that
was but
partially favourable
the
American
ington,
cause.
who
him
in
of
the chief
command, was
of
head of an army
upwards
General Burgoyne,
Burgoyne's
death,
whom
he forced to capitulate.
capture,
loyalist
American
opposed
to
him.
By
this
capitulation
by the
again
the
artillery,
7000 stand
head
of
arms,
of
clothing, tents,
at the
of the
Washington,
less fortunate.
He was
twice defeated
The
latter mis-
WASHINGTON.
95
Wash-
his
He
aid,
had,
it
is
true,
the support of a
;
and the
But
his soldiers,
militia,
though he
Yankee
on
whom
had so long and so reluctantly been compelled to place his main reliance, were inadequately supplied
not only with blankets to protect them from the
severe winter of America, but with ordinary clothes,
rations,
were
of
the
coarsest
And
for
powerful cabal
his principal
of
But Congress had faith in the Commander -in -Chief, and sent a commission to the
command.
camp
all
to
hear
all
complaints,
and
to
investigate
of the army.
at Valley
96
and
and
all nations, if
not
all
commissions, have at
is
money
the
main sinew
of
prevailed
upon Congress
to increase the
pay
of the officers,
and
to grant a
and
soldier
who should
At
officer
Prussian
who had
Frederick,
learned
his
business
under the
task
of
Great
undertook
the
difficult
sian model.
But
as
and
his
commands
his
to
the
men had
to
be
con-
veyed through
who
acted as interpreter.
On
raw militiamen having exhibited unusual stupidity or obstinacy, and the Baron having exhausted all
his copious stock of
oaths in
swearing
at
polyglot objurgation
Sacre
God dam
!
uickelen
et
I can curse
!
badauds
however,
gauches
God dam
By
degrees,
the
army
The increased
WASHINGTON.
bounty had an admirable
effect
;
97
while the ratifica-
which arrived
camp
fied
to inspire
The campaign
more favour-
An
able to
which Washington found himself abandon the line of the Delaware, and to
of the
Hudson.
Though
in this,
but with
away the
stone,
of arranging a
com-
promise, was
of his
the success of
Americans.
It
was
said
by
98
head so long as
decision
Washington.
Lord
Carlisle,
writing
"
Everything," he said,
continent.
"
is
on
this
The
rivers
scale
;
the
cold
the
prospects
magnificent
We
losses,
and our
On
of a
him
of the arrival
French
fleet
on the
coast, instructing
him
to
by sea and land, and empowering him to call on the Northern States, from New Hampshire to New
Jersey, both inclusive, for quotas of militia.
The
of the
French
line
fleet
and
4000
men.
the
The intention
of
Admiral was
to enter
Bay
and the
under Lord
;
Howe
a force
much
inferior to his
own
and in
WASHINGTON.
case
of
99
success, to
bombard
New York
from the
fleet
The French
fleet,
it
commander.
Its arrival
inactivity
and
created
and anger.
The winter
New
England States
cupied
New Jersey.
quarters in
Washington retired into winter December, and protected the line of the
Hudson.
The year 1779 was unfruitful of military events. The English and the Americans during all that time
accomplished
each other's
off
Newport
in
Ehode Island
De
;
Count De Kochambeau
100
British at sea
was so great
of the
cution
of
the plans
forces.
American
though
rendered memorable in
defection or treason of
"
man
whose name
to this
is
onym
ous
;
of all that
is
base, unpatriotic,
and treacher-
and by the hanging as a spy of the brave a deed of questionable British officer, Major Andr^
severity, that remains as
great
a blot
upon the
the
first
Due d'Enghien remains upon that of the Had the American commander Napoleon.
enough
to
been chivalrous
request of the
fate of
doomed man, that he might meet the a soldier and not that of a felon, the stain
less
was not only a man with a brain to think and a hand to execute, but with a heart not altogether
incapable of mercy and kind feeling.
to drag
on
its
weary length,
among Washington's
WASHINGTON.
until
101
mercenary
and discouraged
the
money
to
livres,
or
240,000
of need.
An
by the
fer the
unsuccessful
still
attempt
against
New
York,
which was
British
seat
of
war
south,
and trust to
De
vres
Chesapeake.
The
commencement
of
Lafayette, and aided by 3000 French put ashore by the Count De Grasse, he established his head-
Lord Corn-
bers,
of
it
On
the 30th
102
of September, Washington,
the
French
allies,
place.
With a French
of the town,
in the
York Eiver
in
front
armies on
all
was desperate, unless he could be relieved. No relief was at hand. On the 6th of October
the
first
parallel
of
the
siege
was opened
at a
distance of only
the afternoon of
600 yards from the enemy. On the 9th, all being ready, Washfirst
gun, and
was maintained
for several
To surrender
to the
rabble,"
was
galling
from
New
York,
His
fortifications
were
tumbling in ruins
half destroyed
the town
his
;
men
suffered
from
sickness and
want
of food
and on the
1 7th
he
WASHINGTON.
hours, that two officers of each
settle
103
to
Corn-
wallis
than Washington
as
to
prisoners
retain
of
The
officers
were allowed
their
side-arms
both
officers
and
sol-
diers
their
private property.
to
and
to receive the
same
rations as
to
Ameriallowed
can
to
soldiers.
The
officers
were
be
return
to
Europe
on
parole,
or to retire to
The whole
men.
Canada and other British possessions in America. force that surrendered amounted to 7073
Lord Cornwallis was sad at heart
;
still
sad-
der he was
when he
Henry
Clinton,
sailed to his
line, fifty-two
7000
Sir
Henry
arrived off
all
was over
with Cornwallis.
After
hovering
trance of the Chesapeake for another five days, during which he learned
all
104
of
the British
he returned to
New
York.
The
real
British
power
in
delight.
ington,
United
and the victory achieved by their associated And after arms, should be erected in Yorktown.
States,
King
of Prussia
at
Sedan, the
Almighty was solemnly praised for the signal disThe Liberal party in comfiture of Great Britain.
England received the news with mingled feelings of joy and regret, in which, however, the joy predomi-
was thought the American victory prefigured the speedy close of a war which was fast The British becoming distasteful to all parties.
nated, because
it
When
Street,
him
in
Downing
he
is
reported to
wildly,
and exclaimed,
"
the
official
it
apartment,
all
Oh God
effect,
it is all
over
"
!
And
was
over in
still
WASHINGTON.
105
Washington remained on the defensive, resorting to the offensive whenever he found or could make a fair opportunity to strike a blow
wellnigh spent.
with advantage.
But the
of Corn-
of
peace
with
Great
Britain,
may
tories of the
recorded.
commenced
;
in
1782
active
hostilities
and Washington,
On
the
20th
of
in
was signed at Paris but the news did not arrive America until the 23d of March, when it was
received simultaneously
Washington in
De
Lafayette.
few
Carleton,
Guy command
of
that he was
hostilities
ordered to proclaim
sea
cessation
by
and land.
among
who
106
Loyalists.
Many
called
with Sir
Guy
Carleton's
of
New
ants
title
that their
grandfathers assumed.
On
down
his commission,
the dissolution of
future policy of a
inde-
pendent
"
in
fact
as
The great
object,"
had long been in theory. he said, " for which I had the
my
is
am now
prepar-
remainder of
my
of
life."
He
America in
WASHINGTON.
107
hesi-
that of "sole
lords
and proprietors
all
of a
vast
tract of continent,
soils
all
comprehending and climates of the world, and abounding with the necessaries and conveniences of life," and
the various
congratulating
of absolute
"
is
them
as the
acknowledged possessors
This
the
is
this
moment when
are turned
upon them
this
is
the
moment
to
thirteen
sovereign
any European Powers among them the subservience of European objects, he specially
recommended four things to their earnest considThe first was the establishment of an " ineration.
dissoluble union,"
heads
108
secution of the
war
first
effectual
resort in
case of hostility;
fourth, a disposition
among
make mutual
concessions, and
to sacrifice indi-
He made
slavery,
no
mention
of
or
allusion
to
negro
at that time
and in
thought
be other
than a healthful
and advantageous
close of
his
life
and his
official
career,
unconsidered
soil,
though
it
gave
but few
it
indications
to
of
of
the
upas-tree
into
which
was destined
the
expand.
At noon on
23d
December, in presence
up
his
commission
to Congress.
He was no
with
orator,
but he spoke
n
"
this occasion
it,"
much
"
dignity
indis-
and
feeling.
I consider
he
said,
an
my
by commending
of
them
WASHINGTON.
to
109
finished
Having
the task
field of
assigned to me, I
action
;
retire
and bidding an affectionate farewell to this august body, under whose orders I have long acted, I here offer my commission, and take my leave of
all
life."
The President,
to
on
the
and unselfish
services.
You
retire,"
he
;
"
said,
fellow-citizens
command
it
will
Many
of the
present
.at
this great
historical scene
were
and some among the sterner sex were not ashamed to betray the like honourable
affected to tears,
emotions.
Next morning Washington took his departure for his estate at Mount Yernon feeling, as he himwrote to his friend De Witt Clinton, eased of a load of care, and hoping " to spend the remainder
self
good men,
and
He
of a liberal hospitality,
and
110
by
during
all
His
of her son
was no longer in the land of the living. The old lord was stanch throughout the war in his allegiance to Great Britain, and deplored the
of
conduct
the
Americans,
and
of
their
general,
whose
He was
when
the news
The blow
He
slave
who
Carry
me
bed
!
to bed,
It is
carry
"
!
me
to
These were
the
mourned by
Virginia,
Washington and
all
the inhabitants of
who
not share
six years
in
WASHINGTON.
Ill
He was
tours
visited
by
he made
of business
on
Kanawaha
at
rivers
when
at
home
Mount Vernon,
who sought
his
the
for
most
distin;
acquaintance
own
State of Virginia
devoted atten-
and
delegate to
was charged with the duty of drawing up the first constitution of the United States. He was not
without great and grave anxiety for the stability of
the Union which he had been so main an instru-
ment
in establishing;
whom
fitted
the
constitutional liberty.
The
"
"
Sovereign
States, as
which Wash-
if
guard
itself
effectually
against
attack
It is true that
George
112
III.
had
sensibly, as well
as
magnanimously de-
man
man
in his
United
States, so
he would be the
last
to raise
But the King was not the Government, and the King might soon die and there
a finger against
it."
;
was a general
Country might
in hostilities
feeling
at
in
In a
letter,
"
The Confederation," he
"
said,
appears to ine
to be little
me
it
is
it
is
we should
con-
to give the
making,
and may be
to all the
which they
powers
may
be instrumental in producing)
sufficient
to order
and
the same.
By
such policy as
the wheels of
Government
are clogged,
WASHINGTON.
113
ishment
stood,
we
and darkness."
In another
letter of the
more despondent
for a republican
Americans
"
form
of
"
government.
We
have
probably,"
of
he
wrote,
in
human
nature
men
and carry into execution measures the best calculated for their
own
of coercive power.
we can
exist
which
getic a
manner
several States.
To be
investing
body
is,
appears to
me
and madness."
who
114
the
"
am
"
told,"
letter to
Mr
Jay,
From thinking
is
acting
But how
irre-
What
What
tri-
umph for the advocates of despotism to find we are incapable of governing ourselves, and
systems, founded on the basis of equal
that that
liberty, are
merely
ideal
and
fallacious
Would
to
God
that
wise measures
consequences
"
the
ap-
prehend
An
vative,
insurrection in the
but
then
very
riotous
and troublesome,
Washington's misgivings.
the
incident
to
War
of Independ-
The
principles
of
the
insurgents
were
summed up
Secretary at
in one sentence
War
"
WASHINGTON.
115
Biotfor
together
State Government,
had been
wore on, so
for-
midable, that
to call
In
in Connecticut
there should be
It
which we now
live
own
choice
and making
to overturn
them
The thing
is
so unaccountable
it,
that I hardly
know how
to realise
or to persuade
myself that I
It
am
and
feelings
closed
The
was a
desired
Constitution
such
as
to
that
large
116
"
State
opposed to
"
Federalism,"
or
much power
it
in the hands
the
general Government.
States
to
thirteen
which
ratification accepted it
a bare
of
by and with an expressed proviso amendments which they specified while two
unanimously
majority,
;
five others
States,
and refused
by
it.
Even the
Federalists
satisfied,
and State
tion for
saw in the document the preparaand the seed of a nascent despotism. The
instrument by nine States out of
its
ratification of the
validity
at
and as
different
Conventions
assembled
During all this period an active correspondence was carried on between Washington and his political friends, in
said,
much was
of
the
Presidency.
Washington,
not
with
feel
all
his
unaffected
modesty, could
but
that his
WASHINGTON.
tained for his character and abilities, pointed
him
the
office.
He
had,
it
is
life
was
final
but
everybody knew
vocable,
and that their true meaning might resemble that concealed under a young lady's negative, which
only required a proper amount of importunity to be
converted into an affirmative.
The
possibility,
and
to betray to the
direction.
public that
wandered in that
The necessary
received
was
and an
first
Wednesday
Vice
-
in
January 1789
and
to his friends
and correspondents was not necessary, he unburthened his mind freely to all whom he
118
Colonel
"
:
Notwithstanding that
my
fifty-
my
tural amusements,
and
my
growing love of
retire-
my
decided predilection
would be
which
to
my
encountering
new
fatigues
and
troubles,
that
would deter
that
me
pretension,
and
all
as
To Alexander Hamilton
I should be pre-
vailed
upon
to accept
it,
my
life."
To
know my own
viction of
me
again to take an
active part in
if
affairs.
And
in that case,
my own
conduct,
my
WASHINGTON.
to extricate
119
my
is
in
which
it
and
if
to establish a general
system
of policy, which,
pursued, will
Commonwealth.
which leads
to the attain-
ment
of that object.
industry,
make us
great
my
countrymen, promise
to
co-operate in establishing
Whatever
thought of
his
other
correspondents
could
may have
have no
didates
him
and the
ment was paid to the public spirit and private worth of an American " the Father of his country," as
he now began to be
called,
became
unoffi-
cially
con-
ferred
upon him.
It
fifty
days
afterwards
that Congress
120
was
the
fact
officially
to
but nominal
of
Vice-President.
On
the
16th of April
to
the
new
President
leaving
Mrs Washington
Mount Vernon
the
seat
of
for
New
time
the
Federal Government.
"
:
An
About ten
to
Mount
;
Vernon, to private
and
to
domestic felicity
New York
render service to
call,
my
its
but with
less
hope of answering
all
expectais
tions."
His progress
called
the
commonly
bells
an
"
ovation."
;
fired
flags
;
steeple, tower,
and house-top
robed
his
erected
flowers
girls
in
white
garments strewed
upon
city
through
which he passed.
On
WASHINGTON.
Point,
121
whence he was
to
van Kull
New
was
of Congress
He
and
his cortege,
which
had gained
of
volume in
rolling,
embarked on board
a state
manned
by thirteen pilots, one for each State in the Union, and all arrayed in white uniform. Several other
gaily decorated barges of less imposing construction,
by
accompanied and daughters, followed, and flashed along the smooth waters of the Kill and the beauofficials,
crowded with
civic
and other
their wives
tiful
bay
of
New
bands, playing
airs, to
"Yankee Doodle
tery.
then a small
city,
but
it
He was
received on landing
by the Governor
cipality of
of the State,
the city,
was
of too cold
unduly elated on
He
this
wrote in his
display of
occasion,
some with
vocal
and
some
with
122
FOUNDERS
OF.
skies as I passed
my
mind with
sensations
this scene,
my
labours to do
of acrid debate
among American
title for
politicians to dis-
cover a proper
by his long residence at the most and splendid Court in Europe that
was
"
of the
Tuileries
be addressed as his
should
it.
was possible
to
make
Thomas
practice
Jefferson
who was an
ultra-Republican in
silly title of
if
Mr,"
was
for calling
President," and nothing more, and depriving the office of any factitious dignity, and
of all
WASHINGTON.
as
123
would be employed
humblest
by the habit
of military
command,
in this
inclined
of
Adams
A
"
soon effected.
"
His Excel-
and a not very lency stringent code of etiquette was adopted, of which
instead of
His Highness
"
whenever he chose
ered
when
his
Washington, in private
mind the
"
great
truth
it
that
all
may
appear,
and precarious.
I greatly fear,"
he wrote,
"
that
my
me.
I fear,
124
upon me
at this
moment,
It
may
were wholly
undue
a good opinion of
useful to
him during
his
term of
office as it
was
Washington
difficulties
as a statesman
had almost
as
many
which he had
difficulties
confronted
as
soldier
and
these
due to the temper of his own people than to any The measures that foreign enemies or opponents.
chiefly occupied
his
time
and that
first
of
Congress
office,
term of
for the
common
defence of
for
ment
and
measures,
the encouragement of
for the
agriculture,
promotion
and
literature,
and
public credit.
The
last topic
WASHINGTON.
involved
the
to
125
discussion,
most
acrimonious
and
envenomed
of rival factions.
The question
of the funding of
the
new
Union
asunder
before
it
was
finally
cemented, and created controversies and antagonisms that lasted long after Washington had been
gathered to his fathers, and far into the lifetime
of the succeeding generation.
The ultra-Democrats
Bank
to be not only
an
aristo-
institution,
the establishment would act with fatal effect upon the liberties of the country.
men
himself,
the
He
was
was
at the
head
"
of the
"
"
Federal," as Jefferson
at that of the
Union
party
of
Hamilton.
was ultimately
millions of dollars, or
two millions
sterling, of
which
126
Presidency.
He had
do so
close,
was
felt
and expressed in
the States
Union
Even
able,
those
who
considered
themselves
powerful,
and popular enough to aspire to the office Jefferson and Hamilton among the number thought it
their
to urge
paramount duty,
senting to
Washington was coy as before, and with greater reason. Power and its exercise, which had necessarily
brought
him
into
collision
with
parties
schemes
he
could
not
advance,
had
to
impaired
this,
In addition
of
he
pomp and
cere-
and sometimes in a carriage-and-six and in enshrouding himself from the intrusion on his
four,
;
WASHINGTON.
privacy of the unauthorised and
127
unknown
vulgar,
who, on
nature revolted.
Taking advantage
enemies
of
these
circumstances, his
power without creating them represented that he was not at heart a Eethat his tastes and manners were arispublican
virtuous, can attain
;
tocratic
and
that
he
not
only
had
leanings
own brow
the royal
crown of America.
Nothing could be
falser
than
much
of truth
and
life,
of a splendour of
official
meekness
he
said,
who would
my
farm of
Mount Vernon than be emperor of the world, to " be accused of wanting to make myself a king It was too disgusting, too much for his philosophy
!
to bear
one oath,
and he relieved his mind by more than in the most emphatic vernacular. But,
128
nominated
for a second
term of
office.
All moderate
rallied
first,
no
the Union.
He had
scarcely been
reinstalled
month, when the Eevolution in France, which owed much of its early impetus, if not its origin, to the
successful
revolution
reached an unexpected
at the
discredit republican-
ism
all
mind a
and
for
himself as
of
chief magistrate,
war against Great Britain by the French Eepub1793. lic, which arrived in New York in April
The American people were greatly excited. They had not forgiven the King and Government of Great
Britain for the protracted opposition to the Inde-
and
as the
war was
foe,
and
WASHINGTON.
129
The
tors
all
out privateers in
British commerce.
indignant.
He
but he
He
hastened
from
Mount
Vernon,
repose, and summoned a Cabinet Council to meet It was unanimously resolved at Philadelphia.
the
United
seas,
any
hostilities
on the
deemed contraband
ised nations.
of
articles
civil-
much
al-
The pro-
clamation was
130
In
the
midst
of
the
ferment
of
He landed at
Charleston,
means unsuccessful,
to
induce
fit
the
by no leading merefforts,
Great
State,
Britain.
Mr
Jefferson,
had previously received and communicated to the President information from the American Minister at Paris, that
Genet had been furnished by his Government with 300 blank commissions for pri-
Americans
as
He
found
venture
West
profitable
islands.
extent
of
the British
trade
those
When
at last
at Charleston,
city
and proceeded by
all
land to Philadelphia.
His progress
the
way
was a triumphal
one.
He was
everywhere received
WASHINGTON.
31
cessions.
The head
of this
was described by Hamilton as " a busy man rather than a man of business," was wellnigh turned by
these manifestations of popularity before he arrived
at
Philadelphia.
In
this
city
preposterous
welcome was
attained,
the
sore
who saw
in the excited
entanglement
which he conscientiously believed the United States had, and ought to have,
do.
nothing to
The capture of a British ship, the Grange, in American waters, by one of Genet's privateers, and
of several others
brought matters to a
The
British Minister
demanded a
and
Washington
but
his Cabinet
restitution
should
Grange
was a
difference
of
opinion,
and the
Genet,
who had
the worst of
all
faults possible
in an ambassador
132
excess of zeal
of injudicious of State,
which
likely
by
its
WashCitizen
fretted
ington did
not
endure the
nuisance
spirit,
of
and
much
is
The President
his
He
is
extremely
in the public
more than
extremely
am
But the annoyances caused by the fussy Genet were more serious than those caused by the press. Another British ship, the Little Sarah,
was captured by a French privateer, and brought into Philadelphia, where she was manned with a
crew
of
120 men
and
fitted
of
whom
nine
tenths
were
Americans
of the Little
Democrat.
The Gov-
He
deci-
sion.
He met
refusal.
WASHINGTON.
133
He
Washington at last lost temper with this jackanapes, and unburdened his mind to Jefferson on the
"
subject.
French Republic
at defiance with
Government
the
impunity
and to threaten
?
Executive
with
What must
of the
the world
of
and
Government
"
it ?
United States
in
submitting to
The
to sea of the
Democrat ultimately managed to put and escape, no doubt with the connivance
Little
subordinate
authorities
her,
preventing
President.
but greatly to
result was, that
anger of the
deter-
The
Washington
mined
and
for ever
American
the French
Government
to recall
more acceptable was agreed to, but not before Washington and his Cabinet had resolved, in case of refusal, to supersede
Genet's functions, to deprive
arrest
him him
of his privileges,
off to his native
his
country.
Luckily
his
supersedure
by
his
own
134
and
to
sym-
pathy,
or invented
man
and
of the
from American
ports,
United
States,
Wash-
and
United
Though
his military
and
political
and
it
was declared
he
no signs
of his anger
and disappointment
WASHINGTON.
135
his adminis-
much
and the
popular
difficulties
with
in
Great
Britain,
was a was
one
insurrection
as
Pennsylvania
Eebellion,"
that
at
known
"The Whisky
and
It
was
had an ignorant impatience of taxation and the same charge might have been brought with equal
truth against the Americans in the
of their
earlier
stages
national
independence.
An
excise duty
upon
alcoholic liquors
its
novelty
and
its
directness,
and
excited
such
particular
Penn-
revenue.
was found impossible to collect the The Excise officers were opposed in the
their
execution of
The
militia called
and the
Whisky
" If Washington was annoyed and indignant. " the laws," he said, are thus to be trampled
(and* a small
136
one too)
to
dictate
to
the
majority, there is
On
1794 he
issued
and declaring that if tranquillity were not restored within three weeks next ensuing, an adequate military force would be employed to compel submission to the law.
idle threats,
And
to prove that
he meant no
of
the
of
four
provide
an
army
12,000
men,
The insurgents
Washington took the command of the army, and marched into Western Pennsylvania.
ber,
The
leaders
of
the
insurrection
had possibly
failed to convince
in earnest.
At
last
punishment
and the
Whisky
of
WASHINGTON.
It
137
effusion of blood,
which
been
less
and
less
determined
however unpopular.
its
met with
little
support, as
it
was
final,
He
had often
said,
had endured during the and would last him to the end of
for President,
and Thomas
Washington employed such scanty the cares of State and the superior
of
leisure
as
attractions
his
borate
a legacy of
wisdom
of
He warned
of
the people
of
the
danger
of
disunion,
the
impolicy
their
avoidance the
growth of sectional
138
among them,
"
as
if,
though he
life
mentioned no word
of
slavery, the
sunset of
"
mystical lore
pervaded by a melancholy
of
he
all
but
a
despaired
the successful
;
establishment
it
of
Republican Government
but
it
was intended
Such a man
to retire
as
from public
Houses
of the
of
and good wishes from both Congress, and from all the public bodies
"
Union.
May
address of the
House
"
Eepresentatives,
and a
of future
of republican liberty, it is
your example
may
and
of
descendants."
Mr
who
WASHINGTON.
not regret the President's retirement
;
139
that he could
inasmuch
of
as,
in
his
opinion,
qualities
the
President's
want
both
of
these
of
had
conducted
calamitous
the nation to a
Mr
Giles
had
his say
to himself,
though
there
were not
Washington did not live long to enjoy his wellFor nearly two years he was as earned repose.
happy
as
he
desired,
superintended his
and looked
of
Mrs Washington's
he
had no family of his own and of his numerous nephews and nieces. He was even called upon to
leave his retirement to take the nominal
of the
command
army
of the
On
the 12th of
and
hail, to
He
home
140
to
by
his
greatcoat.
He was
seized with
morning, by his
own
who
arrived,
of his estate.
in, and more bleeding was resorted to and the result of the ill-advised phlebotomy was
from
"
!
his doctors.
His
last
words
were,
"
'Tis
well
The
grief
of the nation
The voice
his grave
.
of cavil
;
and possibly
By
slaves.
his
some extent a
opinion
that
philanthropist, he
of
slavery
was wrong.
He
wrote
in
Mr
said,
J.
F.
another slave,
"
being
among my
first
wishes," he
to see
may
be abolished bylaw."
WASHINGTON.
141
nephew
of this
"
:
wish from
my
gradual abolition
slavery.
It
might
prevent
much
future mischief."
it
prophetic,
all
though
will not
fail to
be remarked by
im-
it
War
ton never
in
was
it
for Virginia, as
any other
State, to deal
with
at its pleasure.
jurisdiction.
The world has done ample justice to the character of Washington. His own countrymen, after
death had put
services, did
its
solemn
seal
upon
his career
and
but
the
justice,
and
all
idolised his
highest
great in
not
brilliant.
He was
would
He
wore out
evil fortune
whom
beaten,
when he was
perti-
142
He was
essentially a good
fits
man
and
though subject
cautious,
to occasional
of
violence,
was
prudent, just,
of
it
honourable, unwearied in
the
pursuit
the
right,
and
inflexible in
his
adherence to
of his age
when
discovered.
He was
it,
man
little
in advance of
it
perhaps, but
never so
much
in advance of
as to incur the
as
little
as
who was
first
in war, first
and
first
143
JOHN ADAMS.
JOHN ADAMS, when
in
years afterwards,
when
men
placed
him
"grand climacteric." His career was very from that of his predecessor. It was the
countrymen
that of
the other,
services
by diplomatic
of
abroad.
The
talents of
The genius
of
Adams shone
When
against his
sovereign
twenty,
144
when
and the mother-country, and no grievance large enough to form the subject of complaint, was looking far into the future, and beholding events invisible
to other eyes.
In a
addressed
to his friend
that
the
that they
to contest
Europe combined could not prevail against them and that in less than a century the population
of
Great Britain.
if
The prophecy
by a greylife
uttered
in
men and history but coming sharp and well-defined from the brain of a boy, it was
little
short of marvellous.
of one of the early
who
first
colonised
New
His
and the
boy exhibiting at a very early age a strong love of reading, and a readiness for the acquisition of know-
JOHN ADAMS.
ledge, it
145
was determined
to give
him the
It
best educa-
tion
to
afford.
was evident
all
who watched
his
was
none
to usher
temple of knowledge.
He
received his
first
Mr
Marsh, of Braintree,
whom
late
the
United States
ever produced,
of
Americans
and the
Josiah
Quincy
of
Boston.
of
Harvard
was then, as
it
is
now,
the practice of
the young
men
of
life,
America who
to choose the
law
as their profession.
John Adams,
like others,
distinction,
saw that the law was the great avenue to and was admitted to the Bar in 1758.
diately
He immeand early
commenced
practice in Braintree,
and
after play-
146
eight years, he
for
;
his
advantage
business
man
in his
profession.
During
his
first
year's
'
residence,
he
'
published
anonymously
of
in
the
Boston
Gazette
series
papers,
in
of
which
the
he
canon
exposed the
oppressive
laws.
character
and
feudal
in
London
an American
the
In
when
first
broke out
blaze,
under the
as
operation
of
the obnoxious
was
to
have
so early fore-
He
among
and
British
by
voice
pen,
he
denounced
the
conduct
of
the
The proper
North in England,
is
"
when
;
the right
the-
is
denied.
To temporise
the mother
-
is
to
yield
and
authority of
country,
JOHN ADAMS.
if it is
147
now
for ever.
prostrate at our
On
which the
existent ill-feeling.
The populace
arms in the
streets
and a
The
first rioters
;
were put to
flight,
;
the
to th
necessary
their
own
protection
killed
to
fire
into
the crowd.
much
the military,
who had
The public
anger,
148
into
safer
channel, the
murder
of the officers in
command
of
Looking around
talent in
Mr
Adams.
The lawyer and the politician had different interests in the question, and Mr Adams took time to consider.
at the obvious
risk
His
'that the
was
of
slaughter.
fell
short
of
It allayed expectation, had the anticipated effect. the public excitement, which gradually cooled down,
or fed itself
only too
upon the other aliments which were abundant at the time. The legal profes-
Mr Adams
and his
who would
JOHN ADAMS.
149
House
of
Assembly
as a
;
member
of the Council of
He was
result,
General Gage.
British
But a higher office, over which Governors had no authority, was conferred
his
fellow-citizens.
upon him by
five
He was
one of
gentlemen selected
its
sent
interests
The assembling
mencement
Mr
Adams
tions,
played a prominent part in all its deliberaand became conspicuous for the audacity with
all
which he braved
ernment
at the Bar,
he
felt
bound
upon
duties
150
political life
self strong
enough
to incur.
In this Congress
Mr
of
Adams made
the acquaintance
and friendship
had
at heart,
and who,
of
like
became Presidents
the
Eepublic.
The
marked
and the great Lord Chatham, to whose eloquent support and sympathy American liberty owed more than the Americans
attention in
England
have ever yet acknowledged, declared that, although he had studied and admired the history of the free
States of antiquity,
wisdom
of
crisis
that
come
It
fell to
of the
Mr Adams was
a distinguished member,
To
Mr
Lee, of Vir-
of proposing,
and
to
Mr Adams,
mentous
mo-
resolution.
To
five
members
Mr John
Mr
Eoger Sherman,
JOHN ADAMS.
151
Mr
war
R. R. Livingston,
and
lastly,
Mr Thomas
of
Jeffer-
drawing up the
declare to AmenV.fl.Tia, to
all
future
throw
Christendom.
this
Some
memorable
State
paper
is
doubtless
due
to
of the
it
Com-
but
it
was
essentially,
when
appeared
work
of the master-mind of
His impress and superscription were visibly upon it his purpose and phraseology pervaded it and it received from his hands the most minute, careful, and anxious revision in its
Jefferson.
; ;
Thomas
The debates
in Congress
;
on
that
Adams was
Adams
himself,
was neither
so
He
declared
152
that there
was not a
single
new
or
unhackneyed
;
that the
substance of
it
was contained
in the Declaration of
1774
of the
whole document
was contained in a pamphlet by James Otis of Boston, and printed at the expense of that city,
before the Congress assembled.
he
Otis's
pamphlet,
and admit-
many
Essay
which
were
to
be
found
in
Locke's
and
it
no part
of
Adams was
met
an
after -thought
for
while
the
document was
it
feet,
attacks,
disposing
contemptuously of
and doing
battle for
it,
was
JOHN ADAMS.
for
its
153
young.
He
originally
"
made an
objection
conduct of George
III.,
but he waived
it
in deference to the
not
only
retained,
but
several
times
reiterated.
an imputa-
ill
memory, adding,
and
it."
say for
Mr Adams,
zeal
tion with
every word of
Though
and
of
his
and
magnanimous
praise
Jefferson.
day
of the discussions
to
posterity,
it
perhaps
not
after-
but as
of
emerged in an
time from
the alembic
the
mind
of
Daniel
154
mind
"
of the great
Dr
Johnson.
die,
survive or perish," he
my
hand and
my
we aimed
which
not at independence.
But
there's a Divinity
The
injustice
of England has
own
interest
till
inde-
pendence
should we
now
We
Is
have but
to reach forth to
and
it
is
ours.
?
weak
as
now
to
hope
for
a reconciliation with
either
shall
leave
safety to
liberties, or
?
safety to his
sir,
own
and
his
own honour
is
who
sit
in
you not both already the proscribed and predestined objects of punishment and of vengeance?
Cut
off
from
all
hope
of royal
If
we postpone independon or
to give
we mean
to carry
up the
war
Do we mean
to
to
Parliament, Boston
Port
and
all
Do we
mean
JOHN ADAMS.
be ground to powder, and our country and
trodden
its
155
rights
down
in the dust
know we do not
mean
to submit.
We
men
Do we
him
we promised
to
and our
"
lives
know
there
is
not a
man
here
an earthquake sink
it,
this
moved
that
George
Washington be ap-
pointed commander
raised, for defence
American
liberty,
may my
tongue
right
hand
forget
my
my
mouth,
if
I hesitate or
I give him.
The war,
then,
must go on. We must fight it through. And if the war must go on, why put off longer the Declaration
of
Independence
us.
strengthen
It will give
The nations
156
never do while
in
we acknowledge
ourselves subjects
Nay,
I maintain
by repealing her Acts, to acknowledge that her whole conduct towards us has been a course of
sent,
injustice
and oppression."
dictatorial
moods of
Puritan, rendered
him unpopular
among
admits
He
suspicion
both in
ficient
by the wealthy and conservative classes, and out of Congress though he had not suf-
strong, to render
him a beloved
even
orator,
able
colleague,
or
an agreeable companion.
after the
Declaration
of
JOHX ADAMS.
sioners to several of the
157
States.
European
Jefferson,
Benja-
commissioners
France, to
Jef-
and commerce.
The
practice of
Adams
in
at the Boston
Bar had
somewhat diminished
amount
ness
;
of
offer
and
its
emoluments.
He had
name
of Abigail
a strongof consider-
minded person
of puritanical stock,
and
who
and
who was
accom-
They remained
to
until
June
1779,
America.
appointed
Mr
Minit
Adams was
ister
afterwards
Plenipotentiary to Great
if
Britain
though
He
once more
French
frigate,
accompanied
by
his wife
No
satis-
158
made on
the long
and weary road which was to lead at last to the recognition of American independence by Great
Adams
applied
and was
accordingly accredited
Hague, where he arrived in July 1780. Here he remained for upwards of two years, acting
United States
for the
whole
gress to
might be requisite
support of his
own and
to proceed to Paris, to
Dr
in
-
the
negotiations
peace
of
with
the
the
mother
country.
The weariness
British
Yorktown,
all
end
so long pursued in
America was
A treaty of
was signed
JOHN ADAMS.
159
home
England,
where he remained
the people.
He
official
appointment in
On
the
7th of
May
Mr Adams
at the
Hague,
and Dr Franklin in
commerce with
was
offered to
foreign nations.
Jefferson,
Mr
two friends
for
Adams,
;
as befitted his
cordially
on
that
of
were
destined to
meet
after a long
and
to
Immediately on arrival
new
Dr
Franklin
joint note to
Mr
Adams,
to
summon
him
to
their
deliberations.
Adams
in his ideas
and sympathies
160
mind,
felt himself more at home among the English. The progress of the negotiations was slow. The Count de Vergennes, on the part of France, thought
it
legislative action in
both countries.
The King
of
concluded
while
Denmark and
In the meanwhile
Dr
Mr
In February 1785,
Mr Adams
received a similar
left
May
to enter
upon the
fulfilment of
new
and more congenial duties. On the 2d of June he was presented to King George III. He appears
to
satisfied
he wrote home to
that
"
Mr
in
the
King,
his
was
the
most
accomplished courtier in his dominions, and possessed all the affability of Charles
II.,
with
all
the
I."
But
this
was when
fresh
;
its first
off
by usage and
familiarity
JOHN ADAMS.
for at a later period of the
161
year,
same
and
after
he
had been
six
"
Mr Jay
in small-talk, that he
and government
He
He
has a pleasure
in his
own
will
be miserable.
patriots
He
has an habitual
contempt
of
and patriotism, and takes a delight in mortifying all who have any reputation for such
qualities."
Perhaps
the
great lexicographer
Dr Johnson,
was the
last resource of
a scoundrel."
Jefferson
King
as
was not so favourably impressed by the Adams had been on his first visit. Having
on a summary form
of a
for the
purpose
to the
Marquis
of
Carmarthen, the
and Queen.
Mr Adams
turned his
and himself, and that the King back upon both of them. The Marquis
L
162
of
and
King and them and their mission upon Adams, whose vanity was at
still
further,
and
French ambassador's,
at
political
and fashionable
celebrities, his
conviction that he
was wholly out of place among them. The Marquis of Lansdowne and the Earl of Harcourt entered into
affable conversation
rest,
with him
there
was an awkward
which he
own
importance.
"These people" he
There is con-
cannot look
me
in the face.
$cious guilt
and shame in
their countenances
when
ill,
they
look at me.
and
that
I am
of
it."
Mr Adams
is
represented
medium
manner
and
it is
which
was nothing
While
Mr
Jefferson
Mr
JOHN ADAMS.
163
Adams
visited Stratford-upon-Avon
of note.
At Stratford-upon-Avon, each
"
two
Ministers
cut a
chip,
according
to
custom,
from
At Worcester he turned
battle-field,
famous
neighbourhood appeared so
"
careless,"
make
a
"
set
speech to
them
of the purest
buncombe."
Do
fought for
Tell
is
holy
much
holier
than that on
which your
churches stand.
pilgrimage
to
once
a -year."
Adams
one,
a very appropriate
"
and
"
the rustics
much amused
who was
The diplomatic
duties
of
his
various
foreign
large
made no
of
attention
the
164
Minister.
his
To occupy a leisure that to a man of literary tastes would have been intolerable, he
'
wrote an elaborate
Defence
of the "Constitution
States,'
and
Government
lished
in
of the
United
three
in
volumes
in
1787.
his
residence
England he remodelled
additions, omissions,
work,
which, with
tions,
many
and emendatitle
was republished
in
of
'A History of the Principal Eepublics of the World.' This work was designed to prove, by ample induction from ancient and modern history, that the
great safety of the
adherence to
as
rights.
In these
opinions
was
diametrically
to,
and
When
it
was known
in
Washington was willing to serve his country in peace as well as in war, and that he would not only
accept the office of President
election
if
elected,
would in
all
probability be
unanimous,
United
States, so
it
much
South, that
JOHN ADAMS.
165
itself to all
moderate
men
name
of
Mr
when
the
revolt
of
the
itself;
orator,
Henry
America
distinction
New
Yorkers,
"
I,"
and
New
this
exist.
he
!"
exclaimed, "am
But
feeling
excited
of the
Confederacy,
Mr Adams
lot of
In
New
violent,
expression.
If the
government
is
to be lasting,"
166
said Colonel
Main
of Virginia,
"
it
must be founded
and
in the confidence
and
must be
so constructed as to
obtain these.
The The
them-
selves
[New
words
of
'
The Lord
"
?
Whatever jealousy of a similar kind might have existed in the North and East, was suppressed out
of deference to
Mr Adams
of
almost as
Washington.
first
Adams was
at his post in
London when
informed
him
an honour which
he enjoyed
it,
He
con-
My
country," he wrote,
has in
its
insignificant
man
contrived or
It had, however,
one
the succession
JOHN ADAMS.
his incumbency.
167
American
history,
itself
to
John
Adams. But
if
he thought
little
of the Vice-Presidency,
and would,
surrounded
if
it
he could have had his own way, have with much of the regal splendour to accustomed in England and
administration
of
Washington,
when the
the imputation of
aristocratic, if
Mr Adams
station that
never
reconciled
his
mind
to
the
he consented to occupy
in the
it
though he
tolerated
it
would
serve
to
as
stepping-
To occupy a mind naturhad always pointed. ally active, and to while away the tedium of a position in which, as he complained, he could
neither do good nor evil, he
literary work,
commenced a second
"
and wrote a
series of
Discourses on
'
Davila," which he
published in Fenno's
Gazette
168
of the
Wars
of
Prance in
to
its
object
was
warn
of the dangers
to be
government.
success.
Its
time charged, principally in the South, with advocating monarchy, or labouring to prepare the
for the establishment of
way
this
an hereditary Presidency.
evil
effect
To counteract the
publication,
anticipated
of
Mr
'
Jefferson
and his
friends,
strong
Federalism, repub-
lished Paine's
it
of
1789
filled Jefferson
Adams with
dismay.
And when
XVI.
"
:
The
Queen
of
France
no more
peace in
Europe
therefore,
mony
of
in America."
"
In the same
Washington.
His position," he
said,
highly
JOHN ADAMS.
responsible and very distressing.
alists
169
zealots
of,
to do, that I
and injure
He
supports
all
their
attacks
health appears
to be very good."
all
evident,
however, notwithstanding
comforts
of,
and
all
Wash-
ington experienced
in,
Mr Adams
sit
in
it.
Though Washington, as President, took little two related questions of the slavetrade and of domestic slavery and though Mr
interest in the
;
Adams,
as Vice-President, could
little
disposed to exer-
by
public debts, were by no means left in abeyance. The Northern and Eastern States had the greatest
objection and aversion to the African slave-trade,
more
The two
questions
were
fully
debated
170
in the Convention of
though none foresaw or could have imagined it at the time the disruption of seventy-four years
later.
From
adoption of
of
the the
amended Constitution
great Civil
the outbreak
War, there
more
or less violent,
North,
not upon
the
that
was
man.
New
itself
England
;
and
damaged
of
1796
Mr
Adams,
who had
long made
his calculations
and perfected
claims before
all
own
work with
the vigour
demanded
by the circumstances.
in favour of Jefferson,
of
England was in favour Adams, and a large party in New York and the
New
JOHN ADAMS.
Middle States inclined in the same
from love of
171
direction, less
a feeling, to use a
common
was
colloquialism, that
fair-play,"
was just
as
man
should
The question at issue was not only between South and North, but between State Parties were too evenly rights and Federalism.
supply his place.
balanced to give either of them a strong assurance
of victory
;
many
candidates in
the
field,
there
was the
scattering
of votes
The
Adams
called
President.
The Eepublicans,
they
were then
or Democrats, as
now
The
and George
Clinton,
and
five
On
Mr Adams,
;
Mr Jefferson, 60 for Mr Pinckney, 59 for Mr Burr, 30. Mr Adams received the entire vote of New England, as well as of New York, New
71
;
for
172
Jersey,
North Carolina.
Mr
two
new
States of
Kentucky
the conclusion of the war had been admitted into the Union
;
fourteen
from
Pennsylvania, twenty
numbers,
which
no
as they
had
fallen, the
two highest on the list were severally declared The demarcation President and Vice-President.
between Northern and Southern
defined.
politics
was
clearly
Government,
and
the
North
were
and
the
Vice-President,
who,
though
more power
or
influence
his
capacity
and in
all probability,
Adams was
"As
is
JOHX ADAMS.
the world about which I
I
173
am
it
or not have
...
can
Mr Adams.
am
his junior in
life,
was
of to-day
to-morrow
strength,
if
necessary."
knew
his
own
made no com-
and on
this, as
On
the
8th
February 1797,
the
votes
for
of the Vice-President,
who
ex
officio
acts as president or
chairman of the
(himself) and
John Adams
Thomas
had been duly elected President and Vice-President. The joy of Adams broke out
Jefferson
irregularly in the form of a prayer that formed
no
the
programme
"
:
And may
Sovereign
of
Ordainer of
civil
government on earth for the preservation of liberty, peace, and justice among men, enable them both to
discharge the duties of those offices with conscientious diligence, punctuality,
and perseverance."
174
On
in presence of the
no
obligation
to
attend the
ceremony.
when he
of it as
first
saw
it
in a foreign land,
he approved
"
character, situation,
and
and
that
it
was
to
had been
that the any objection " Executive and Senate were not more permanent " that he never had a thought of promoting any
in his mind,
;
in the
feel
to
be necessary
or
expedient."
He
"
?
asked,
so well
"
What
was
could
What
essential, any more than mere ornament and decoration, could be added to this by robes and
diamonds
"
?
or whether
"
when
descended from
in
or
institutions
established
remote
antiquity, than
when
of
it
and
judgments
"
?
an
and
enlightened
people
JOHN ADAMS.
175
He
paid a
warm
He
declared himself
in favour of peace
and a
rigid neutrality
between
personal
esteem
of
for
the
French
nation,
formed in a residence
them, and a sincere desire to preserve the friendship which had been so
interest of both nations."
much
for the
honour and
by whom
as temporising, as a playing of
as
his
of
opponents.
delivery,
after-
But Adams
on the day
its
was delighted with it, and at the effect it produced, or seemed to have produced, on the His mind was radiant with satisfacassemblage.
tion,
of hopes that of
The leave-taking
"
affect-
scarcely
and
all
agreed that,
taken
all
together, it
seen in America."
The popularity
of
superior to his
176
how
best to re-
move
councils.
The
relations
some time
new
Adams
;
and hated
their
Eevolution
from them.
Would
it
Mr Jefferson
if
pos-
Mr Adams
has
:
left
on record
own account
I sought
of the transaction
Mr
Jefferson.
With
terms of
intimate
friendship
five-and-twenty
years, had acted with him in dangerous times and arduous conflicts, and always found him assiduous,
laborious, and, as far as I could judge, upright
faithful.
and
Though by
with him
and success
JOHN ADAMS.
I
177
differed materially
from
me
calumny ought
to
discourage
me from
consulting
men whom
knew
qualified
them
to give
I asked
Mr
Jefferson
spare
" "
'
him
send
to-
France
'
'
"
'
That
is right,'
said
Mr
Jefferson
' ;
but without
it
am
so sick of residing in
'
!
Europe that I
I replied,
'
own
would be
legal to appoint
you
but I believe no
"
man
well.'
proposal
"
in
my
room, and
me
alone, for
sation with
me.
He
entered immediately on an
178
explanation of
our
affairs
with
France, and the danger of rupture with that nation a rupture which would convulse the attachments
of this country
;
that
to
it
it
first
have got
me
to
was out
seem
justi-
fiable for
him
who was
Mr Adams
been in
had evidently
his doubts,
and would
it
gratified if
had
Mr
Jefferson's
power
to
remove them.
But
Mr
Jefferson
was too
and
strict in
to the letter
spirit of
feelings inclined
him
to the accept-
offer.
Mr Adams
inflexible,
no sooner
saw that
his
"
friend
"
was
and that he
was
right,
than he,
too,
came round
to
Mr
Jeffer-
and found abundant reasons against the appointment, which had so lately seemed good
son's opinion,
in his eyes.
He had
ideas
and dignity
to
JOHN ADAMS.
abandon.
179
though temporarily, and thought that the nomination of the second person in his realm as ambassador
to a foreign nation
pliment to
would be much too great a combestow. He was the sun and the moon
;
own, was a
light superior to
any
we wish not
ourselves.
if
the
King had
Mon-
eldest brother as
if
Wales
condition.
same
the country,
the
sovereign authority
In a subsequent
to
letter to
Mr
Gerry, he continued
string, glorifying
the President.
expected," he wrote,
"
that
Mr
Indeed I made
it,
to
accommodate the
I would
reflection,
and prejudices
of a party.
not do
it
again, because,
180
I
.
am
.
nation or
government
if
we
princes of
must be a
piti-
man
of the
Envoy Such
itself
'
a one,'
'
Ambassador Such a
a one.'
'
one,'
among the
trash of
common
among
the
common
The vain man's head was turned by the fulness of his new-blown majesty. When he was playing second to the great Washington, he was a discontented nobody
not a prince at
all,
occupant
wit
of
of
man ever devised. Circumstances were altered. He who had been elected as second to the great John Adams was like the heir-apparent of a throne, and not to be confounded with such common
JOHN ADAMS.
181
With
conduct,
influencing his
Mr Adams
should endeavour to act a kingly part between contending parties in his realm.
Forgetting that he
of a party,
on his
political friends,
he attempted to be
and
to bestow his
The experiment was unsafe, and proved fatal to his reputation and his usefulness. Washington, like
himself,
was a Federalist
working harmony by
respect
for
Washington himself,
Adams
retained
power over the members which Washington had wielded. The result was foreseen, and the elements
of
disintegration
in
his
councils soon
manifested
themselves.
affairs
But
foreign
rather
than
domestic
were
dency
sufficient to
statesmanship.
and
France
182
to
American
commerce
States, in endeavouring
between
parties.
John
Adams knew
and was
the power
too
at heart
sincere
an admirer of the
and not
by every
time,
At the same
sore
would be a
if
blow
the
prestige
of
Kepublicanism
the
two
World
to be entangled in a
war which
sides
patience
might prevent.
The
difficulties
with
France
had
first
arisen
In November
Government
United
He
JOHN ADAMS.
posed, of producing
183
an
effect
on the approaching
Presidential election,
and
ture
of
Mr
Jefferson.
Monarchy
had given to American independence, but he owed no gratitude to the French Republic, and was not
the
man
to yield to
which France or any other country might put for" I have always," he said, " given it as my ward.
decided opinion, that no nation had a right to inter-
of
any other
and
its
this
engagements,
maintain
a
it
strict
neutrality,
to
and
was bound
do
so,
by
motives of policy, interest, and every other consideration that ought to actuate a people situated as
we
are, already
in ourselves."
As Mr Munroe,
to
up
his
instructions,
he was
recalled,
and
Mr
Pinckney
"Washington,
by
this time,
was out
of
office,
and
Mr
had
Adams,
policy,
who
inherited
foreign
learned
that
French
Directory
refused
184
to receive the
new
him
to
The excitement
in
America was
it
might
anti-
of
an
party to provoke a war " between what they called their " natural enemy
States.
Senate on
its
M.
Barras, the
and studiously marked with indignities towards the Government of the United States. He complained
of
Government,
different
to
American people from their persuade them that they had and
affections.
interests
Such attempts,
suffi-
he
said,
Americans were not a degraded people, humiliated under " a colonial spirit of fear and sense of
and regardless of national honour and character." Though France was thus aggressive, he
inferiority,
relied
upon negotiations
and
JOHN ADAMS.
in the meanwhile, in case of accident,
185
he strongly
recommended Congress to provide effectual means of defence, and for the vindication of the national
honour.
as
already
and
career, to
Commander-in-Chief
as
an acceptance which in
itself,
Adams
over,
and
the
United States
feeling
of
bitterness
against
the
well-
meaning President, who had disappointed both, and thought more of his country than
factions that
them
of the
it.
The
necessity
of providing for a
war that
it
the Administration.
186
instituted
discontent
to
fan.
which
It
was
however, in the
South,
had never been popular, and where the opposition to centralism was keenest,
where
that
Mr Adams
these
discontents
were
most general.
Two
eminent
to
their
men
own
series of resolu-
of
State rights,
and condemnatory
of
Free States
into a unity
of
States
and
were
national
Government.
These
resolutions
drawn up by
Mr
Madison.
In Kentucky similar
and though not actually drawn up, were sketched and inspired by Mr Jefferson. These resolutions affirmed, far more
distinctly than
had done, the separate rights of the States. They " that whensoever the general Government declared,
assumes and delegates powers not expressly conferred
upon
it
no force
that each
JOHN ADAMS.
State
its
187
is
an integral party,
;
Government created by this compact was not made the exclusive and final judge of the extent
that the
of the
power delegated to it, since that would have made its discretion, and not the Constitution, the
measure of
its
powers
a compact
among
parties having
no common judge,
itself,
as
In these pregnant sentences lay the whole doctrine that was, in after-years, brought
forward to
justify
those
States
of
in
be
novel.
all
It
was warmly
the debates on
Whenever
a dispute
arose between
188
The
was always the proof that the party which had recourse to it was losing ground, and
threat
was always held as a rod in terrorem over the head of the dominant faction, to warn it not to push its
advantages too
far.
it
was
wolf
a
"
raised
by the shepherdreiterated,
boy in the
cry
often
with
more havoc
the
sible.
1861
to
1865, than
to
worst
alarmists
ever
imagined
be
pos-
Mr
"
when he
said
Under a national Government we should participate in the national security, but that was all.
embrace objects
of a general nature.
He
Government."
So anxious
moved
"
the omission
word
"
national
JOHN ADAMS.
Constitution
;
189
and
it
unanimous consent.
It is in the nature of the puritanic
mind
to
be
!
aggressive
to
be despotic
to
sink or to
swim
The old formula that the earth belongs to the saints that we are the saints, and that therefore
;
we must
was no
hearts of the
to
colonise
New
Neither did
its
force
Washington often painfully discovered during the long and weary years in which he fought the
as
all
The
ela-
Mr Adams
entirely,
a President,
if
not of their
own stamp
and section
often betrayed
to
in a
the South.
In
Mr
"
Adams's
incumbency,
Mr
John Taylor
who
as
rode
it
well as exhausting
strength and
substance.
190
the Union, so as to
make use
of
them
to govern the
whole."
Still
as to drive
Mr
His correspon-
of their
"
Seeing," wrote
to
that
quarrel
with,
New
England
associates
They
and
are
circumstanced within
is
such
narrow
limits,
their population
so full, that
marked,
like
the Jews,
with
such
Mr Adams
have found
ill
wrote
feeling. "
:
There
is
a strong jealousy of
chusetts in particular
;
New
"
Morris
of
it is
"
stated,
Mr Adams,
against the
national
merely because a
JOHN ADAMS.
191
and the great party which had made him Vice-President, and which
objections of Jefferson
The
hoped
to
make him
President,
any hands
whatever.
"
Our country," he
all
wrote, at a time
when
its
affairs directed
by
a single Government
and
common law
being
plundering,
office-building,
and
office-
Government
Jefferson as well as
Adams
could
political pro-
of
During the administration of Mr Adams, the seat Government was at Philadelphia but at a very
;
was resolved
to transfer it to the
new
city,
on the
192
of
Washington.
many
intrigues
for
New
of
There
was a strong party in favour of Germantown, in Pennsylvania and a bill fixing the seat of Govern;
ment
was actually agreed upon by both Houses, but afterwards failed on account of an
at
that place
it.
In
June 1790, during the first Presidency of General Washington, an Act was finally passed for establishing the Federal capital on the river Potomac, at
of
the eastern
The uncouth
name
much amusement,
the proposed removal, and hopes that the representatives of the people
"
If
may
die in a stall,
;
In
dig,
Than see them removing to Connogocheaque, Where the houses and kitchens are yet to be framed, The trees to be felled, and the streets to be named."
JOHN ADAMS.
193
official
Though
Mr Adams
took up his
residence
in Washington,
and
it
for a
was not
week
that Congress organised a Government, partly municipal, partly congressional, for the city
tral district of
Columbia, half of
and in
in its pretensions
and in
the
first
real
victory of
nationalism
State
the
first
co-operated Federalism of
secured.
Eights was
a smart
letter-
wrote an
of her
experiences in the
embryo
:
city,
Sunday last, and without meeting any accident worth noticing, except losing ourselves when we left Baltimore, and going eight
I
here on
by which means
we were
194
woods, where
rind-
Fortunately, a straggling
we engaged him
as a
which
is
only so in name.
among the
forests,
human
being."
Her account
is
equally entertaining
"
The house
is
scale,
the apartments in proper order, and perform the ordinary business of the house and stables.
The
and chambers,
is
a tax
and the
fires
we
are obliged
is
to keep, to secure us
another
cheering comfort
bells
If
me up some
(there
is
house, and promises are all you can obtain !), and let me have wood enough to keep fires, I design to be
pleased.
for three I could content myself almost
anywhere
months
you
believe that
wood
is
JOHN ADAMS.
195
We
nience without
room
make
a drying-room
to
hang up the
clothes in."
Mr
things.
Adams,
a
as
became
man and
philosopher,
Provided
he
be
President, he
inferior
During the
year
of
his
administration,
in
Kentucky, whose
a
bias to public
for
many
years
gave
and
an agitation destined
Union.
This
to convulse
and almost
to destroy the
was
Mr Henry
State,
new
whence he
his
native
Virginia,
of a
of a proposition
for its
safe
and
He
any living
slaves,
born
on arriving at a
certain age,
and that
them
for
citizenship.
196
had always that high opinion of his own merits which justified him in his own mind
for aspiring to re-election.
Mr Adams
But
it
was not
to be.
He met
whom
who
placed
all his
glory in moderaparties
by the
Tories.
;
He was
usual time
England
him
their
and although the whole of the New States condoned his offences and gave undivided vote, New York and nearly the
Eight, and
Southern nominee,
Mr
Jefferson,
was elected
in his stead.
;
Mr Adams
and his per-
New
his
own
defeat
it
was the
Mr Adams
towards Great
JOHN ADAMS.
Britain, his aristocratic notions,
197
and
liis
supposed
respect
for
monarchy
as
an
institution, that
im-
he
earlier years,
when
in the first
Con-
of Independence,
mother-country.
An
"
he once
King
of England,"
;
enemies
was made the most of by his and he never afterwards regained any
beyond the bounds
limits,
of
Within those
however,
and regained in retirement any portion of which he may have lost when he was in power.
tion,
it
speaks of him as
John
Adarns
of
the American
!
John Bull
an exciting drama
who
it
quivers, throw-
ing the lovers into a terrible consternation, hurrying on the catastrophe which he
to prevent,
is
most
solicitous
pluming himself most of all upon his sagacity, while he alone is blind to what is passing
198
Such
is
with the
man who,
great,
Mr Adams, however,"
None
of the
the same
his administration.
men
of the
Revo-
lution
came out
of the storm
and
quite unscathed.
patriotic heart,
irresistible
impetus to the
cause.
unfitted to preside
its
upon the
against him.
chief
;
and Hamilton,
the
influencing
mind
One
the
the most
human and
entertaining."
Washington, who was not only desirous, but overjoyed, to retire from the fatigues and responsibilities
of office, did his successor the
honour
to attend at
JOHX ADAMS.
his inauguration,
199
and
to
Mr Adams was not magnanimous enough to Mr Jefferson for his triumph. Still more,
so
he was
when
his successor
office.
took
early morning
So far
rival's
his eyes to
behold
it.
Mr Adams
was in
life.
He
and
if
he could not be
not, at
office,
he would
a lower position.
;
He
retired to
learned to forgive
Mr
to
Jefferson,
with
;
whom
he
renewed epistolary
abundant leisure
to
correspondence
the
and devoted
his
pursuits of literature,
and mainly
th e
a book in which he
amount
His
span
after
life
was prolonged far beyond the ordinary and for more than a quarter of a century
200
to be
power in the State, and one whose opinion and advice were sought by younger In the year 1813, when he was appoliticians.
or less of a
more
who
to
ten,
predecessor to
must go
met; but
ere
long."
The
friends
and
some
never again
and cordial on
every
the
thoughts of statesmen,
them with
fears for
many hopes
and such mighty interests were based. The house of Mr Adams at Quincy was the resort of all the political and literary celebrities
of
New
New
much
congeniality of taste
among people
"
whom
they disliked as
Puritans and
Yankees."
full
share, as
became an
JOHN ADAMS.
201
and
ested
her
One who
was
"
1816, when
Mr Adams
Mr
Adams," he says,
"
shook as
if
and the heart were evidently sound. His spirits seemed as elastic as a boy's. He joked, laughed and talked about everybody and everyHe seemed thing with the most complete abandon.
heartily,
and unwritten
knowledge,
topic,
which gushed out on every possible mingled with lively anecdotes and sallies of
wit."
The same
elderly
lace
visitor described
Mrs Adams
as
"
an
and
stately
female.
still
cap of
exquisite
surrounded features
exhibiting intellect
and energy, though they did not wear the appearance of ever having been beautiful. Her dress was
snowy white, and there was that immaculate neatness in her appearance which gives to age almost
the
sweetness
of
youth.
With
less
warmth
of
manner and
sufficiently
sociableness than
Mr
gracious,
Mr Adams
202
the power of
minimum,
was the
more
which
his
judgment approved.
did,
or could have
had been
men
and Monroe.
it
Mrs Adams
1825
family.
was not
until
that
this
Mr Adams
was by
ninety,
the father.
He knew
;
that his
fast approaching.
The 4th
of July
1826 was
JOHN ADAMS.
of Independence.
alive
203
Jefferson were
still
Adams and
men
the one in
It
had been
resolved,
some months
celebrated all
previously,
that
over
the
and
to
this
end
it
was and
determined
all
that
Mr
Adams,
Mr
Jefferson,
then living
who had
Mayor
of
Washing-
Mr
Jefferson
was
able, ten
anniversary, to write a long and eloquent letter, expressive of his regret that the state of his health
compelled
him
all
to
decline
the
invitation.
less
Mr
Adams was
but unconscious
from positive
the letter
when
reached him.
all
and
all
fireworks,
the
the declamation of
utterances of
which
it
celebrated
of
two families
204
knew
at the time, it
which none could have anticipated in a manner that was awful to the witnesses, and which, when
afterwards
of
made known
On
that day,
of the
amid the
jubilee,
Adams and
homes,
chusetts.
Mr Adams
bells.
in the
of the
He had
were ringing
for
gleam
"
intelligence
shot into his fading eyes as the question was repeated, and he answered faintly,
Oh
"
!
yes
it is
the
4th of July
,
He
!
paused
bless
for a while,
"
and added,
God
bless
it
God
you
all
when he
rallied
and
Jefferson
"
!
These were
six
his
last
articulate
words
and
at
in
the
afternoon
he
calmly
.expired.
At
JOHN ADAMS.
before
205
for all living,
and
man was
if it
his
younger contemporary.
the
Even
in
death
it
seemed as
whichever
may
it,
had
loss
when
The
son,
depart
but
let
my
country be comforted,
Jefferson
still
survives."
city of Boston,
proud
of
its
distinguished
commemorate the
The orator
two departed
patriots.
self a native
He
ferson
but
as
befitted
partial audience,
he exalted
Adams
to still higher
foibles
and
faults to
which
all
who
and
of saint-
when
206
the living.
As
John Adams
greatest
of
Webster
so
much
"
!
commemorasaid,
Alas
he
quoting
friend
Josiah
Quincy
who on
hall
the
4th of
same
all
the
anniversary
when we were
from our
ear,
might yet
rising
visit
with
moment
Alas
"
!
con-
tinued
settling
Mr
Webster,
then
!
For
lo
moment
fr.eed spirit
ascended to
Human
aid and
human
we would
nation's
him upwards on a
the
outspread
accompanied with
of millions."
blessings
Posterity
New
Eng-
land
the
name and
pedestal where
Mr
John Adams on the high Webster would have been conAll admit
;
his honesty,
and
his patriotism
but
JOHN ADAMS.
it
is
207
only Massachusetts
the demi-gods.
the greatest,
country.
if
As a man
the high standard which his youth led his contemporaries to predict.
He was
a respectable, a useful,
made
the most
of.
In later
life,
summit
of his ambition,
wielded, as far as a President could wield, the destinies of his country, he offended the party
suffrages he
by whose
was
elected,
any appreciable degree the party that had opposed him. The adopted of Federalism, he threw back
the cause of the Federalists for sixty years.
"
Whom
Per-
American worthies.
208
THOMAS JEFFEESON.
THE name
of
Thomas
man
;
of
ever
uphold
tially
it.
The
was essenand
its
democratic in
;
results
future Eepublic
of
popu-
genius
upon
a
the
Independence.
patriots
When
sought
earlier
only never
redress
of
grievances,
and
dreamed
ble form of
licanism.
remedy was independence, and the only possiGovernment in the New World Eepub-
He
it
when he
stood alone
he held
until
THOMAS JEFFEESON.
Washington
lost
209
Jefferson never.
heart at times
The
on the
field,
foiled or
impeded
at every turn
by the apathy,
dis-
his
country
The
soldier
was an
tude
;
aristocrat,
was a
man
of the people,
Thomas
Jefferson
was born
at Shadwell, in the
2d
of April
1743, the
Jefferson
third
child,
a planter of
estate
by
his wife,
The Jefferson family were among the earliest settlers in the Old Dominion, arriving from the foot of
Snowdon
in Wales, at a time
when
exceeded 600.
of their descent
less
proud of the
Peter Jefferson
is
210
man
of gigantic stature
and herculean strength, rough in his manners and simple in his appearance, as a backwoodsman should
be
;
more
"
and dramatists.
He was
muscular Christian
when
To maintain the
strong mind in the strong body was his constant and with his force of aim as regarded himself character it was not likely that he would pursue, or
;
Under
was taught to ride, to row, to swim, to hunt, and and in the evenings, when the family to shoot
;
assembled in the
common
in arithmetic, mathematics,
to
keep accounts.
He
and acquired those habits of regularity and system for which the son afterwards became
ful hand,
his
father.
The
elder Jefferson,
THOMAS JEFFEKSON.
211
length
of days,
and died
who
person well
fitted
own
marked
to
he had to
and advantage from the estate which his father had left him, or from the education which he had given and recommended, he should decide in favour of the
education.
after his
death.
He made
and the
violin,
on which instrument he soon became a proficient, and with which he solaced himself to the
latest years
of his
life.
At
the
age
of
212
his
own
wish,
and without
the
solicitation
from his
mother, he entered
College
of
"William
and
On his way Mary, at Williamsburg in Virginia. thither from the paternal plantation, he stopped at
Hanover
to
was assembled.
acquaintance,
On
this
occasion he
made
the
speedily
to
man named
himself,
Pat-
who
and colleague in the early events of the coming Revolution, and to enrol his name among the most illustrious in Amerwas destined
to be his associate
ican history.
good estate
business,
The young man had dissipated a by bad management and bad luck in
in his
was uncouth
manners and in
his lan-
but
and
confi-
dence in his
own mental
resources.
he received a
visit
friend,
"
who
in-
"
in the
meantime
he had studied
received his
The preparation was short, but Henry licence, and became not only one of
THOMAS JEFFERSON.
to say, one of the
ica.
213
new
last
year
of
his
presidency
life
favourite
at school
grandson,
described the
as an
which he led
and college
" When I example for the youth to follow. " he said, that at fourteen years of age the recollect,"
or guide me,"
which says
mother,
"
and
am
astonished I
But
had the
some characters of high standing, and to feel the incessant wish that I could become what they were.
Under temptations and difficulties, I asked myself what those great men would do in my situation ?
what course
tion
?
is it
that
would insure
their approba-
am
mode
of deciding
on
my
which
I possessed.
From the
214
circumstances of
into the
my
position, I
society of
hunters, as well as of
and professional
moment
of the death of
the nation,
which
?
of
these
That of a
advocate of
my
country's rights
Among
Dr
the great
cited to
life,
was
it
is
moral philosophy.
was speedily formed, and Jefferson became the chosen companion of the professor's leisure, and more valuable than could be
He
never, during
THOMAS JEFFERSON.
had not only shaped his public
career,
215
but qualified
him
to pursue it
with honour.
minds
of
In addi-
Greek and
in French,
Roman
German,
classics,
he read with
facility
Italian,
son's Ossian
for Gaelic
was
grammars and
"
He was
not ashamed to
own
that
he thought
this
was long-lived
;
that he
made
any progress with the Gaelic or that his admiration of Ossian was not mainly due to the promptings of the Scottish professor
whom
his
he so highly
venerated.
year,
When
and had
finally
made up
mind as
to
Dr Small gave up
his
intimate friend,
Mr
216
a law student.
was
of that class of
men
it
who,
whenever they
anything to do, do
study of the
Always fonder
of his juniors,
than
evening of his
that
when
nor
Mr
Fauquier,
Mr
Wythe,
his
future master
his preceptor.
To the
for
During all his life, he was a good talker and listener. He had the art of extracting from every one with
whom
cian,
whether he were a
a
sailor,
politi-
soldier,
ostler,
a mechanic,
or a negro
;
a gardener, or an
a white
man
and he had
also
if
it
memory
it
Mr
Fauquier,
who was
THOMAS JEFFERSON.
217
dangerous companion.
bler
He was
an inveterate gam-
But Jefferson was both too young and too prudent, and the Governor himself too much
character.
of a gentleman, to
Unlike his friend Patrick Henry, who thought three months' study of the law sufficient, Jefferson
devoted
five
years to
it
in
Mr
Wythe's
office,
and
at the
end
He was
not,
or not, as
is
he
fell,
in love.
who
enthralled his
charms,
in
songs
and
verses,
under
the
more
wooing
His practice
at the
Bar was
successful,
and his
218
career
was
possible
whole mind
to so jealous
His
fees
and as he always kept an accurate account of his incomings and outgoings, it is easy to trace how
steady
was
his
progress.
In his
;
first
year of
practice he
in
was engaged
in 6 8 causes
in his second,
on, until his
115
in his third, in
198
and so
when
his causes
amounted
to
337.
for his
whole
a
600,
sum
1000
But
his heart
his plantation
was not wholly in the law he had and his negro slaves to attend to.
the discontents that rapidly ripened
More than
all,
his time
hold
upon
It
his energies.
was while he was yet a student in Mr Wythe's office, that the first rumble of the distant thunderclouds of war was heard.
attained his majority,
news arrived
THOMAS JEFFERSON.
the
219
mastered
the
broken
merchant
in
who
had
mysteries
of law
three
months,
was a mem-
the
King and
Parliament
many
of the
remon-
indignant;
Demos-
was the
last
day of
the
place
royal
;
signature.
Coke upon
ment
and
to while
away
upon a subject
of
up a
series of resolutions,
which he presented
for the
consideration of the
House.
They
set
forth
the
America
all
that
220
representatives in Parliament
levy taxes in the Colonies lay in the several legislative bodies of the said Colonies
;
destroy British as
Jefferson
of
in
was present at the door of the lobby the House of Burgesses, and heard the speech
He
the
man
who spoke
as
Homer
wrote."
The
only
.
by a majority of one
him
His admiration
was possibly enhanced by the fact that he himself was unfitted by weakness of voice to
excel as a public speaker.
He
addressed an audi-
of ordinary conversation.
freely
and
knowing where
weakness
THOMAS
lay,
JEFFERSOJT.
221
cal fervour
In the year 1769, having been previously appointed a Justice of the Peace, he was elected a
member
of
the
House
of Burgesses.
The House,
which Patrick Henry's fine Roman hand was distinctly apparent which were not considered
tions
in
the obnoxious
of a recommendation
made
England for trial. Lord Botetourt, the new Governor, was so highly displeased at the tone and temper of
the
resolutions,
that he summarily
dissolved the
The indignant majority immediately ad" journed to the Apollo," the long room of the
House.
Raleigh Tavern in Williamsburg, where they forth-
power
to
consume a variety of articles of British merchandise, which they enumerated. Among the
or
signatures to this
of
George
222
Many members
member
by the
of the
constituencies.
Jefferson,
Mr
his father's, in
at
But before
his
new mansion
at Monticello
was
in
fire
library
to
which he had
made many
of his
additions
and most
own,
to
were consumed.
negro slave
the
evil
was despatched
Williamsburg with
his
tidings.
He knew
is
master's
solatory news
to
"
"
De
old house
burned
of
um
ground, massa
"
?
my
can.
books saved
said
"
Nary
one,"
the
negro,
as
"
"
!
only
"
negroes
Not
so bery bad,
massa
we saved
years
um
fiddle
Two
afterwards, Monticello
having been
THOMAS JEFFEKSON.
tensive library than that destroyed,
223
Mr
Jefferson
took into
it
Martha Skelton,
daughter of
six
John Wayles, a successful lawyer of good property, and widow of Bathurst Skelton, a The lady was not only young and handplanter.
some, and unencumbered with a family, but she was
man
but, better
still,
admired
and
extolled
violin.
her
lover's
performances
on his favourite
respects
happy
five
one,
progeny of
and two daughters died in their infancy, and only one daughter arrived at mature age.
had long been hastening to a catastrophe, which Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and Patrick Henry had long had the sagacity to
Political events
foresee.
The passage
of the
the
few citizens
the
224
prevent
its
Government, was as
much
House
resented by Virginia as
Jefferson,
of Burgesses,
relates in his
fallen,
ment
to
of a
of fasting, humiliation,
evils
and prayer,
of civil war,
and
mode
portance of
Virginia, so
much
would serve
to unite
So Jefferson
and
"
up (the phrase is Jefferson's own) a resolution, somewhat modifying the puritanic formulas, and waited
Nicholas,
"
cooked
next
Mr
was
more
own with
to
resolution,"
propose
in
the
House
of Burgesses.
Mr
THOMAS JEFFERSON.
and moved
it
225
it
passed
without a dissentient.
The Earl
of
Dunmore, who
message
solving
on the ground that the wording of its resolution was an insult to the King and the Parliament of Great Britain.
As
before, the
members
pledging
never
to
purchase
tea
or
any other
by Great Britain declaring that in their opinion an attack upon one colony was an attack upon all and recomarticle taxed,
;
or attempted to be taxed,
mending
colonies,
men
of all the
of holding
an
The day
and prayer was duly observed throughout Virginia, and Jefferson " was like a shock of elecwrote that the effect
of
fasting,
humiliation,
tricity,
him
erect
and
solidly
on the
centre."
Mr
of his native
226
county of Albemarle.
He was
prevented from
dysentery, which
him
"
to his
house.
He had
"
prepared an
draught of instructions
to be presented
of the delegates
who
were
to
be
appointed
to
the
General Congress,
at Philadelphia.
These inwith
a
were
written
in
great
haste,
number
of blanks,
corrected
at
When
at
the
last
moment he found
sonally,
himself unable to
copies to
attend per-
he
caused two
be made
one
of which
he sent to
of
Mr
fate
President
Patrick
the
Convention, and
Henry.
" "
The
of
remarkable.
Whether," says
Mr
Jefferson in his
Memoirs,
taken, or
laziest
Mr Henry
in
disapproved
the
ground
to read it (for I
he was the
I
man
reading
ever
knew),
never
communicated the paper to noPeyton Eandolph informed the Convenbody." tion that he had received such a document from
learned; but he
sickness
from
attending
and he
laid it
on the table
for perusal.
THOMAS JEFFERSON.
It
227
then state
in
pamphlet form,
of
of
"
Summary View
It
the
to
found
its
way
England
polated a
it
inter-
singularly
cast
without
an author's
name
though
produc-
was the boldest proclamation of American wrongs, and the loudest defiance of the British
Government,
Colonies.
that
had
yet
emanated
from
the
"the
leap
being too
wide
mass
of the
citizens to take."
to it
by
degrees,
them news
"
instructions
people, rather
at
first
representatives
fearlessly
as
intended.
228
difference,
King and
loyal,
his authority
in a
damaging
his cause
by
his
vehemence.
"
He
"
repre(it
States
was
Colonies)
had often
indi-
made humble
their
of servility, as
if
they were
demanding
rights
acceptance to "
the
people, appointed
definite
powers,
of
assist
in
machine
Government, erected
and
He
went on
to
of the
fate
which
and
to
in controlling,
manuof
and
especially
accusing
the
King
THOMAS JEFFERSON.
negligently
or wilfully
229
his
refusing
assent
;
to
and,
no
conceivable
reasons
at
all,
vetoing
laws
of
But viewed
ject
until
in the light
by
the
all
the
aftercourse
of
American
affairs
outbreak
the Civil
in
this
War
the
in
1861,
Jefferson's
declarations
to
reference
negro
slavery
and
fairly
attachable to the
British
Government
perpetuate
for
slavery,
such
as
to
reflect
the
mark
him
out, in this as in other respects, as a man far " The abolition of domestic in advance of his time.
slavery
is,"
he
"
said,
we
have,
it
is
necessary to
Yet
by
prohibiting,
and by imposing duties which might amount to a prohibition, have been hitherto defeated by his Majesty's
negative
of a
230
human
Jefferson
wounded by this infamous practice." was not only thus far in advance of
opinion on one great
question of
it
British public
on
another
peroration,
tion
In his
eloquent
mother -country, provided justice were done, he said " We are willing on our part
the
:
from
to sacrifice everything
to the
which
all
must
let
wish.
On
Government)
just,
them name
their terms
but
let
them be
and
it is
in our
power
to give, for
such things as
we can
But
going
raise for
their use
or they
to
make
for ours.
let
them
other
not
think
to
exclude
us
from
to
markets,
dispose of
those
commodities
which
Still
less let it
be proposed
own
territories shall
own.
liberty at the
life
gave us
of force
is
may
last,
This
our
THOMAS JEFFERSON.
The
instructions to the delegates appointed
231
by
en-
same
year,
Jefferson's
much
was not
wedded
to
his
own
more
courteous
stances.
But
Jefferson's
resolutions
coming
back
from England with the impress of British acceptance upon them, and the great
name
or,
of
if
Edmund
not their
Burke
author,
editor
powerful
effect
of
greater
number
of votes than
who saw
For
this
purpose he
232
moved
state
of
and that
certain
members be a
committee
embodying, arming,
of
men
as might be
Henry
introduced this
of semi-
We
must
fight, sir.
I repeat
to the
An
appeal to
arms and
Jefferson
carried
by a
of the
committee to carry
into effect.
An
much
sooner
it
was overridden by cooler heads than his own. In pursuance, as was the opinion of the time, of a preconcerted scheme for disarming all the colonies, the
commander
James River, acting under the orders of Lord Dunmore, sent a party of armed men into Williamsburg,
and forcibly carried
off all
THOMAS JEFFERSON.
building.
233
greatly
mind was
excited
battle
by
of
Lexington.
The discontented
of
men
flew to arms.
The volunat
the
county of
Albemarle assembled
Charlotteville,
he approved,
Lord Dunmore's
As they
been
policy.
did not
make the
attempt,
it
has been
and desired
which Washing-
His numbers increasing at upon Williamsburg. every step, at last amounted to nearly 5000 men.
The Moderates,
alarmed
to
;
as
well
as
the
Loyalists,
were
took measures of
to the
defence,
protection of the
Fowey man-of-war,
at
anchor in
234
the
command
of Captain
seizing the
gun-
army, with a
bill of
exchange
At
this
triumph
such
it
was
influ-
North) deemed
ciliation.
it
But
issue exactly
where
stood.
He
still
insisted
on
shade of
politics,
had determined
to resist at
every hazard.
He
con-
To Jefferson was
confided,
on the part
of replying to
the Minister;
and he accordingly
of Burgesses
prepared a paper,
THOMAS JEFFERSON.
adopted with but slight modifications.
forth all
235
After setting
the reasons
mon
We
of
application
which our
invention
We
It
have
has
with Parliament.
old.
We
have wearied
He
answer
us.
We
and
What,
then,
remains to be done
to the
injuries
no wrong, earnestly beseeching Him to illuminate the councils and prosper the endeavours of those
to
whom When
of
author
so
many
admirable
State
papers had
preceded him.
one, and had no
He was
the youngest
member but
oratorical power.
But he had an
old head
diction
upon young shoulders, and a mastery of and of logic with his pen, which more than
all his deficiencies as
atoned for
a speaker.
He was
236
welcomed by the more ardent spirits, and with curiosity, if not respect, by the more moderate
cordially
politicians.
particularly
"
struck
silent
by
his talents
Though a
"
member
he was
and
decisive
upon com-
my
heart."
taking up arms."
for
It
was believed
at the time,
and
more than a quarter of a century afterwards, that this document was mainly the work of John
but Jefferson, in his
the essential parts of
it
Dickinson of Philadelphia;
autobiography, claimed
as his own.
gress,
all
The
the colonies.
When
it
was evident
negotiation was
At
the com-
mencement
of the year
when
this conviction
was
beginning to spread,
those
who
reconciled to
THOMAS JEFFERSON.
237
any country
to
principles
it
proceeding
"
which
recommended.
This
was
Common-Sense," by Thomas
Paine, an English-
of
Dr
Franklin.
its
was instantaneous.
"
Its tone,
manner,
Dr
Eandall,
all
its
un-
whom
it
was addressed."
;
John Adams somewhat disparaged the work but Jefferson was loud in approval. Edmund
Burke, in an
address
"
to
spoke of
it
as
the
celebrated
of
pamphlet which
prepared the
independence."
minds
The Legislature
Pennsylvania
voted
other
Paine
colonies
500
for
his
pamphlet,
other
to
and the
do him
;
vied with
each
honour.
but
when
it
238
most sanguine could have anticipated. The memorable Declaration of Independence was the first fruit
of its labours
a document which
is
alone sufficient
to perpetuate the
name
from
of
Thomas
Jefferson,
and
to
cover
it
men.
came
his
mind,
clear,
shapely,
Jupiter,
complete, as
of
and received no
alterations
additions
or important
slight
or nothing to its
symmetry,
its force,
or its perspicuity.
John
of the
it,
Franklin, as
members
any important
"
criticism.
Dr Franklin
"
suggested
"
absolute despotism
arbitrary, "
power
phrase,
Mr Adams
substituted
"
words
"
present
other
King
of
as the soul of
THOMAS JEFFERSON.
with
239
him the
credit
of
its
authorship.
Never-
theless, the
gad-flies
own
Jefferson
ideas,
many
of the
but
much
of
English pamphlet of
Edmund Burke
Jefferson
critics
to revel
of their
own
spite,
contradict them.
He had
business,
many important
his attention.
private
affairs
that de-
manded
His household
at Monticello
including his
own
his
employ
to
numbered
these,
thirty-
In addition
he had to
by himself or his agents, no There was also his law less than eighty-three slaves. business, so that altogether he had irons enough in
his estate,
manage on
the
fire to
have
justified him,
had he been
so inclined,
of pub-
and duties
tasted
who has
human
tamer
blood,
food,
itself to
politics
240
himself
milk-and-water of
intellect
domesticity.
strife,
was in the
and he decided
to
fortunes.
was well
for
America
himself
and
its
enthusiastic proclamation
To
his mind, as
first
own
State.
He was
seemed
it
an American,
it is
true
particularly a Virginian.
to
The Union
so
him
who had
much
was
to
do in framing
to be
object
resist
and
to prevent
of
and
Great
For
all
domestic purposes he
The Union
was a bridge
of
many
foreign enmity,
down
all
the whole
edifice.
THOMAS JEFFERSON.
cratic party, of
241
War
of
1861
ad-
which
may.
it
home
politics
affairs,
withdrew
from
Federal
or
Union
tion of Independence,
to those of
Virginia.
by the
last
Duninore, the
and
royalist
Governor
and he and
of
Jeffer-
constant
opportunities
meeting
and
of
working together.
Elected a
Jefferson
member
of
by
He
"
entail
a general revision
He
also
242
and
on the same
foot-
more remarkable
opinion declined to
nevertheless
destined
until
be
partially
years.
successful,
though
not
after
many
The
first
on both of which
wisdom he
his contemporaries.
To provide
"
amending the constitution of the College of William and Mary," and for " establishing a public library."
-The
first of
differences
of
the
British
so recently carried
Mr
Forster, or than
any that
descend to discuss.
Mr
that
it
Jefferson
broadly laid
" "
down
the
to
principle
was the
duty
education
of the of
State
provide
of
all
the
children
citizens
who were
too
THOMAS JEFFERSON.
progeny themselves
fundamental
instruction
idea,
;
243
this
was
The
peculiarity of his
reading, writing,
and arithmetic, and the reading of such books as would make them acquainted with
of
American
ination
to
history,
sworn
act
who should
two
best
and most promising talent and disposition. This pupil was to be sent to the grammar-school of
Among
the
made
choice
at a stipulated time,
fell,
and those on
were
whom
after examination,
to be
denomi-
nated
"
seniors,"
and
eligible to
years on the
"
public
foundation.
From
these
and Mary,
be boarded,
and educated
by
this
means
244
securing
child
ability
enough
quired examinations.
He
thought they were unable to turn to beneficial account, and which, in his opinion, would only have
uncared
for,
like
was
valueless
for the
to
man
an Act
emancipation of
the children of
for
and providing
to be brought
up
at
them
to earn their
own
livelihood
by wages, the
age of twenty-one.
be
"
"
deported
torial
possessions of the
THOMAS JEFFERSON.
husbandry, seed, and farm stock.
to be organised into
245
republics,
subject,
in the
Book
of
nor
is it less
and the
ernment.
between them.
It is
in our
power
pation
in
such
by
be
free
left
white labourers.
to itself, our
human
Happy would
if
it
have
still
to
what Jefferson
servile
called
deletion
"
of the race,
by a
war
of
which
246
summon
pen
tion of Independence.
of attributing to
He
George
Government and
of the
Parliament,
responsible.
"
He "
human
nature
itself,
violating the
of life
and
liberty
who never
offend-
opprobrium
war-
King
mined
to
men
should
be bought and
tive
for
He
And
excit-
that this
fact
of
assemblage of
horrors
might want no
is
distinguished
cruelty,
he
now
and
to purchase
prived
first
obtruded them,
THOMAS
JEFFEESOJT.
247
slavery,
was un-
fortunately expunged
partly perhaps
King
of
Great
and partly because there was no sufficient evidence to show that either he or his Governresponsible,
ment had
In June
was elected
in his stead.
The events
to
of these years
in Virginia relate
more
mili-
than to
the
Thomas
Jefferson.
While
in office,
Wash-
one
in
infinitely
more ready
to aid
his
seemed wellnigh insurmountable, than to join the ranks of the dissatisfied, and of those who clamoured for a change of military chieftainship, when-
248
But the
office
of
Governor of
State,
con-
roses.
nold, the
erals,
American
traitor,
as
much
same
reasons.
ment
own house
of
MonHill,
ticello.
One
of
Elk
was occupied for ten days by that ruthless soldier. The owner, forewarned of the enemy's approach, had
time to remove some portions of his
Tarleton destroyed
all
all
effects
but
all all
the the
plained,
cut
the
throats
of
all
that were
also broke
too
young
all
He
down
THOMAS JEFFERSON.
waste, and carried off thirty slaves.
to have given
"
249
Had this
been
them freedom,"
right
;
said Jefferson,
"he
to inevitable death
I after-
wards knew
now grown deliremove from place to place with her young family for safety from a marauding soldiery, was the discontent, fast ripening
the hardships inflicted upon his wife,
and forced
to
into ingratitude
administration,
his
of
beloved and
harassed
to
Virginia.
at
The
Legislature,
summoned
meet
Charlotteville,
almost
to
Nor
even at
this place.
On
power to the Speaker to convene them when and where he pleased." A cry was raised that in such a state of affairs a dictator would be of
leaving
"
more value
to the State
250
and Patrick
Henry was
emergency.
of
man
for the
One
Mr
Gary
of Ampthill, a relation
Mr
people and against mankind, and would be trumpeted through the world as a proof of the inability
of a republican
The
the Legislature
career as Governor,
young member to make a series of charges against him in reference to his official conduct, and
a
to
demand a public
inquiry.
Jefferson's
friends,
every
particular.
Their
No
by general
selves into
second,
THOMAS JEFFERSON.
251
means
of resistance; third,
;
that he too
much
fourth, that
he
Monticello
;
at
the
near
and
fifth,
that he
it
abandoned the
office of
Governor as soon as
be-
came one
of
difficulty
and danger.
All
these
charges came
young member, a Mr Nicholas, was not present to bring them forward at the appointed time. Mr Jefferson refuted
to nothing; the
them
seriatim,
of Delegates unani-
of thanks to
him
for his
imthe
and
upright administration,
declared
charges against
him
to
future
and remove
former censure.
But
was thus triumphant, the accusation rankled in his mind, and gave him a
although
Jefferson
distaste
for public life,
Mr
which
it
to remove,
his thought.
his native
uninfluenced by the
Independence
with
Mr Adams
of the
252
He
appointment, partly
at the time
him were
was disheartened at
perhaps
illness of his
whom
Many
friends to in-
man
and
so
public
when
flattery
and remained quietly at conveyed home, reading, writing, and fiddling, working in his .garden, and sitting at the bedside of his wife, to
in the reproof,
two
years.
Martha, after-
wards
Mrs
how,
for
four
months during which her mother lingered, her father was never beyond call, and passed most of
his time at her bedside, or in a small
room adjoin-
THOMAS JEFFERSON.
ing.
253
A
his
moment
was
room almost
in a state of insensibility
by
sister,
who with
him
where he
He
kept his
room
for
three
weeks, during
which he walked
down
occasionally
at last
when
nature
was exhausted.
When
rode
out
on
In those
companion,
solitary
witness
to
many
As
is
when bereaved
still left
to him, as well as
An
months before
to
confined
him
commenced
tical
and
others,
to him, in of at
reference to the
Virginia,
climate,
and productions
title
of
'
Notes on
Virginia
254
He
also
commenced
on
an anxious examination
his plantations, his private
and found
what he expected
suffered
that
was wrong; in looking into his accounts of profit and loss in reforming and retrenching in examining, along with his farm bailiffs and overseers,
;
;
into the
management
had temporarily abandoned. In May 1784, he was for the third time appointed by
Congress, notwithstanding
to
his
previ-
ous
refusals,
European
mission,
and was
tions
The
belief
of
friends
political
assohis
and
particularly
desire
to
give
him
life.
THOMAS JEFFERSON.
255
made
Paris
within
two
months
His career
in the
Dr
Franklin, in
and had long been, the favourite in the brilliant circles of French society, and in the gay Court that
dreamed not
of
coming,
monarchy
and
for the
American Eepublic
was doomed
to exercise
European thought
But popular
as
him
in the race of
fame and
fashion.
The
musicians,
ladies
all
the
painters
as
well
as
the
fair
who
man with
whom
was a pleasure to converse, and to whose Jefferintimacy it was an honour to be admitted. son knew how to "be all things to all men," and
was an admirable
His
modesty was only surpassed by his merit and it was noticed of him, not without secret approval,
256
men
are of all and women of the day for the fast epochs and of all countries that claim to be civilised
him
to blush like a
school.
The prevalent
so
ideas
of
religion,
much
of
their
scepticism
and
master
for
Though not a
scoffer,
like Voltaire,
he took so
little
But
who assume
was conreturn to
and
Jefferson's alleged
he
indignantly
denied,
his
weight
race.
capital,
him with
But
unpopularity
in
the
political
French
fashion,
where ultra
THOMAS JEFFERSON.
and where
the
257
it
Abbe*
to
de
Talleyrand thought
necessary to explain
the
English ambassador,
was a
Christian,
the
accusation
either
of
have done
him no
it
worth
make
it.
But
it
was the
political rather
the ominous
so
much
that attracted
Dr
Franklin in the
in the second.
first
instance,
and
to
Mr
Jefferson
The
rising
men
of
pendence of America as due in a great measure to French support, as it unquestionably was, and
looked with admiration upon the stand which the
of a principle,
no
but
trivial in
comparison with
the oppressions, exactions, and every form of corruption and misgovernment which France, without
exhibiting the courage of resistance, had endured
for ages.
Not only
officers
who had
served under
Rochambeau, and L'Estaing in America, but the younger scions of the noblesse who had
Lafayette,
258
knew
own
man
after the
American
was the leavening of the lump, and produced a fermentation greater and more violent than the philosophers foresaw.
of Franklin
and
Jefferson.
It
It
was not in
by
and
he had not been many months in Paris before he applied to the events occurring around him the
same sharp scrutiny that he had given to those of his own country, and clearly defined .to himself
the shape and the direction of the revolution that
be inevitable, but
of
near
abroad.
He
character, while wondering had so long exhibited under misgovernment which would, ages before, have driven the Anglo-Saxons
to rebellion.
Feudalism and
hered-
and monarchy, laws of entail and primogeniture, class privileges and monopolies, he
itary aristocracy
THOMAS JEFFERSON.
the expression of his deepest dislike.
259
The extravoften
agance
of
his animadversions
against kings
when he
would
did,
party in
the United
monarchy
He
1788
France, in
which he spoke
those
of
"
who would
French
be kings."
"
affairs,
On
"
:
So much," in
ref-
having
From
never to
;
young Republic may learn useful call a foreign Power to settle their
;
differences
to
in wealth and
alliance
power as
thought worthy of
sisters,
nieces,
and
the
cousins
kings
and, in
short,
to
besiege
class of
human
lions, tigers,
and
mammoths who
called kings.
'
260
"
man
common -sense
in
twenty generations!"
But these
violent denunciations,
of
a similar kind that are scattered through his correspondence, were intended more for
foreign use.
home than
for
The amended
was under
States
cer-
discussion.
who would
of the
member
Conven-
efforts of the
Federal
and
legislative
peerage,
which he
appointment of
re-
He was
the
eligibility
office,
of
term
in
from
fact,
four to
Monarchism was,
favourite aversion
of
his
the
his
red
eyes
by the waving
in
which
before
any athlete
could
Yet, notwithstandingit
his
were real or
to
launch
when
the throne
THOMAS JEFFEKSON.
of
261
upon the billows. In describing Memoirs the taking of the Bastille, the declaration of the Eepublic, and the execution of
tion like a cork
his
in
for the
The King," he said, in reference to the events of 1789, "was now become a passive machine in the
hands of the National Assembly, and had he been
left to himself,
"
all
the good
and
so limited as to
restrain
him
from
abuse.
he ever wished.
sway over
'
his
But he had a queen of absolute weak mind and timid virtue, and of
all points.
This
so
gaudily painted
in
the rhapsodies of
of restraint, indignant
262
pleasure,
Her
inordinate gambling
and
dissipations,
of
and others
her
hand
of the nation
opposition
to
it,
her inflexible
perverseness,
dauntless
No
would have been provoked, nor exercised. The King would have gone hand in hand with the
force
wisdom
of his
constitution.
closed
the
am
unamenable
to its
punishment nor yet, that where there is no written law, no regulated tribunal, there is not a law in our
hearts,
and a power
in
THOMAS JEFFERSON.
263
employment in maintaining right and redressing Of those who judged the King, many wrong.
thought him wilfully criminal,
many
it
were better
I verily
Vicomte de Noailles,
who
of
similar
Thus," he wrote,
all
went down
at
one
sweeping blow
privileges,
and,
if
in
fine,
the
feudal
regimen
generally."
that the
As
in
in France,
by the authors
of the Declaration of
264
the committee of
Mr Jefferson
to attend
and
assist in
their deliberations.
traordinary request to
as a very high
make
;
to a foreigner, as well
compliment
but
Mr
Jefferson, with
political character at
home,
was
;
to the
his
King
duties
as chief magistrate of
the
nation
that
concerns of his
own
him
to
in a specific character
who, at this
the political
battle-
whirlwind
fields,
was too
fully
American
and too
principles he
Washington and
of
participation
-
the
making,
in
that might, he
successful
the
not,
If Jefferson
would
THOMAS JEFFERSON.
265
American Minister,
to say that
on the
fol-
Jefferson wrote
fashionable
dinner
in
Paris,
and
members
of the
National Assembly,
whom
he de-
The
placed
ner, the
cloth
having
table
been
after
removed,
the
and
wine
on
the
American manof
their
friendly
reminding the
state
of
among
them.
Though he
it
also
had
his opinion, he
was
ready to sacrifice
patriotic
cause
266
Jefferson records that the discussions lasted for six hours, during all which time he
was "a
silent wit-
unto
usual in the
logical
conflicts
of political
opinion
by no gaudy
or declamation,
and
handed down
by Xenophon,
that
Plato, or
Cicero.
The
result
was,
the
King
;
should
have
suspensory
veto
on the laws
posed of a single
people.
body
only, to be chosen
by the
of
This concordat
decided the
Jefferson
fate
the
a
constitution."
But
as
had
been in
manner entrapped into taking a part though he in this great historical consays it was a silent one
ference,
he thought
to
it
his
morning
come
involved.
all
that
Mr
use
made
of his
it
was
his
Mr
Jefferson
would often
assist
would
spirits,
and
THOMAS JEFFEKSON.
267
The
influence that
Mr
to
warm and
knew
affairs
him and
in
his counsels
no more.
his
His private
after
Virginia
as
required
his
presence
long
and plantations, exceeding ten thousand acres in extent, were suffering from the neglect or malfeasance of the overseers to
absence,
estates
whom
ment.
he was compelled to entrust their manageIn June 1789, General Washington in-
Mr
in Paris,
bade
and in September the American Minister farewell to Lafayette and all his French
with the expectation of returning towards
friends,
He
of the
French people
ties, graces,
and amenities
and a feeling strong in his mind that, next to being an American, the best thing in the world
of Paris,
was
to
to be a
Frenchman.
It
was
268
appreciated so highly
but
it
destined to fulfilment.
his
services,
France
panied
or
Europe.
his
On
by
two
daughters,
he passed
a few
weeks in England, where he does not appear to have had, or to have cared to have, many friends
or acquaintances, and arrived off the Capes of the
him
Cowes in the
Isle of
and
arrival.
When
off
when
the captain,
a venture.
The
risk
was
great, but it
was successcol-
fully accomplished,
lision
away a part
Two
was
including
his
valuable
papers,
THOMAS JEFFERSON.
and a few
visits
269
paid
to
friends
on the line of
23d
of
December 1789.
The overseers on the plantations and the negro slaves had received notice of the great event,
and gave him a reception such as the tenants on great English estates were accustomed in the
olden time to give their landlords after long absence, or
The
relations
between
the
Virginia
of Jefferson's
day and
their slaves
were
generally of a
paternal
character.
The planter
was the
of
patriarch,
and the
visible
He was
physician
and
if
of Appeal,
who was
sure to do
them
of
it
Jefferson
an enemy
slaves
slavery
to
deal
whom
was
whom
do
so, in
his public,
and
270
had he dared
to brave
The
wrong was done them, and no white apostles had appeared among them to excite insurrection against
was personally as kindhearted a man as ever lived, and his negroes knew
their masters.
Jefferson
it,
when
him
exhibiting,
to
their employers.
His daughter
scene.
When
it
the
Mr
Jefferson's birth-
place
up the
the
When
him
in their
arms
to
devoted in
their
attachment to him.
" They believed him," says his daughter, to be one of the greatest, and they knew him to be one of
They
THOMAS JEFFERSON.
spoke to him freely in
all
271
their difficulties,
and he
watched over them in sickness and in health, interested himself in all their concerns, ever showing
all.
On
his
way from
Norfolk to Monticello,
Mr
Washington which influenced the whole course of future life, involved him anew and more his
violently in the vortex of politics, and
his
rendered
dream
of ease
He was
;
offered
after
of
Secretary of State
and
much
earnest
it.
accepted
On
to his son-in-law,
Mr
Mr Adams
that
Aaron Burr.
The opposition
protracted
services he
had rendered
to the Republic, if
it
were
only
for
when
272
as unhappily for
America
to the
and
and
to the highest
honour in
power
to bestow.
had become
efforts
thanks to the
their great,
Washington, Jefferson,
and
though
less
celebrated and
compeers,
Benjamin Franklin and others or much might be said of Jefferson's cautious and successful statesmanship and prudent management of public
during his
It
first
affairs
Presidency, from
his
first
1801
to
1805.
was during
dential chair
that Louisiana
the Trench
approved,
if
he did not
originate.
Burr,
who was
was not
a popular man.
amply
career
;
justified
by a
and public
and
Jefferson's victory
all
with enthusiasm by
who
men, especially
if
the respectable
men were
pos-
THOMAS JEFFEESON.
sessed of brilliant talents and capacity.
joicings
273
Great re-
were held in
all
Union
the occasion, of
Jefferson
and
Liberty,"
nauseam, until
the
character
its
of
public
nuisance.
The new
that he
was elected
for
second term in
1805, and would probably have been re-elected to if he had been disposed to
still
more
burdensome
subject
responsibility.
But
his
mind on the
In
a
letter
written to an
January 1805,
months previous
"
to his inauguration,
he wrote
My
of the
for seven
years,
and be
for
ever afterwards
ineligible.
is
too
way
of
withdrawing a
he
is
doing wrong.
The
service
274
four,
my
principle as corrected
by
experience
I
and
it
is
am
my
in
second term.
The danger
is,
and attachments
keep a
man
through
life
life
shall
become
habitual,
and
will follow.
of
General Wash-
example
voluntary retirement
follow
it.
eight
years,
to
and I
shall this
...
had determined
have
consented
declare
intention;
but I
of
to
it
be
best
silent,
riot
on the opinion
friends
who think
out of
to put a continuance
all
of office
my
power, in defiance of
is
cir-
cumstances.
There
could engage
my
bring in a monarchist.
impossible.
While,
therefore,
make no
In
public declaration of
let it
my
purpose,
have freely
be understood in
private conversation.
this I
am
persuaded that
my
approve of
my
views.
And
should
at the
all
end
of
my
the favour
which
my
power,
THOMAS JEFFERSON.
275
and expect with more than composure the termination of a life no longer valuable to others, or
of importance to myself."
Jefferson's
second
inauguration
took
place
in
when he was
The inaugural address which he delivered on the occasion was only remarkable for the pathetic paragraph with which
"
it
concluded
which
my
called me, I
me
astray.
am
sensible of
me knowingly from the paths of justice but the weakness of human nature, and the limits of my own understanding, may produce errors of
seduce
judgment injurious
to
your
interests.
I shall need,
rienced
it
certainly not
we
are,
who
He
and planted them in a country overflowing with all the necessaries and comforts of life, who has covered our infancy with His providence, and our riper years with His
wisdom and
276
with
me
in supplication that
He
will so enlighten
and prosper
may
your good, and secure to you and the friendship and approbation of, peace with,
do shall result in
all
A
term
all
than
month
cessor,
Mr
Madison.
for the
model
of
an
republicanism, for
pomp and
disbanded,
is
state
laid
aside,
superfluous
officers
the
monarchic
maxim
a national blessing
conquest,
a vast and
fertile
region
THOMAS JEFFEKSON.
added
to our country, far
277
the Missis-
sippi
New
West
the Pacific
itself,
How
!
blessed
to
go
How
a
deservedly blessed
all
will be
You
carry
your and proofs the most decisive of the love, country, the gratitude, and the veneration of your country-
men.
your
may
be as happy as
that our
young men may see in the happy close of your days an additional inducement to form their minds on the
model
of yours,
is
who compose
the General
Assembly
of Virginia."
heavy
re-
Mr
Madison, and
set out
He
wrote to Madison on
278
the
which were so trying to wheel-carriages that he found it more comfortable to ride on horseback,
which he had done
for eight hours, during as thick
and disagreeable a snowstorm as he had ever He was now in his sixty-seventh year, witnessed. and felt no inconvenience from his ride except
fatigue
him
"
more confidence
His personal
Dr
Eandall,
"
who wrote
was
Jefferson
Calm authority
his
voice.
he at once attracted
He was
which his looks conveyed was that of great firmness and gentleness combined, of powerful energy
in
perfect repose.
to
pleasing
effort at
the
wit."
In 1810, Jefferson, in a
THOMAS JEFFEKSON.
279
at his
farm at Monticello
"My
From
correspondence.
breakfast to dinner I
my
ers.
garden, or on horseback
am
in
From
recreation
with
my
and
and
My
I
perfect,
my
inforced
by
my
if
my
fellow-citizens.
what
please
without being
of
responsible
to
any
mortal.
A
of
part
my
occupation,
is
and by no
means the
studies
least pleasing,
such
young men
of
ask
me
for
it.
my
library,
my
society.
reading, I
knowledge
;
the freedom
to bear
and happiness
of
mankind
so that,
coming
mate government."
280
Jefferson,
afflicted
him
greatly.
In removing his
round by water
Jame
river,
and
its
thieves,
He was
par-
making vocabularies of the various Indian tribes, which were not then so nearly He had extirpated as they have since become.
fifty of
all
destroyed or
lost,
with
mud
of the river.
What
was the
fact that
many
of
the
destroyed
and
to
all
appearance preserved by a
hand well competent for the task had become extinct, and that others were fast perishing with The loss was the tribes that had employed them.
irreparable,
to
lament
it
letter preserved
by one
of
THOMAS JEFFERSON.
of this great Cincinnatus of the
281
no sketch
of the life
and character
carried with
to the tastes
made
leisure
and retirement
all
him.
Books were
at
times his
many
power
of selection.
He
In his youth he
I
had loved poetry; but by the time to observe, he had lost his taste
for
except for
Homer and
works
He went
over the
languages,
though
fact,
In
ance with Greek and Latin than from any other resource of literature
;
him
frequently
282
he read
new
the
'
publications as they
came
out,
never missed
the
new number
of
a review, especially of
Edinburgh,' and kept himself acquainted with what was being done, said, or thought in the world from
which he had
dening, the
beds.
retired.
He
fields,
Every day he rode through his plantation and walked in his garden. In the cultivation of the last he took great pleasure. Of flowers, too, he was
very fond.
attention
One
of
my
early recollections
to his
is
of the
which he paid
flower-beds.
He
his
remember
well
when he
returned to Monticello,
new beds
He had
accompanied by one
his
gardeners,
generally
way, but
my
sister,
THOMAS JEFFERSON.
. .
283
I
was
his active
and useful
first
assistant.
remem-
and
The
roots
arrived,
There was
Marcus Aurelius and the King of the Gold Mine, the Eoman Empress and the Queen of the Amazons, Psyche, the
God
of Love, &c.
Eagerly, and
and wondered what strange and surprisingly beautiful creations I should see rising from the
clature,
my
grand-
father's
own
Anne
young faces, of younger grandchildren, clustering round to see the progress, and inquire anxiously the
name
returned
how
eagerly
we watched
appear-
Each
root
was
marked with
by
its side
;
its
own name
was
for
one of us to
through
the
discover
the
breaking
the Queen of
Marcus Aurelius was coming up, or the Amazons was above ground With
!
how much
pleasure,
compounded
of
our pleasure
284
and
birth,
fact,
he would imme-
and praise us
for
flowers
delicate
how he would
my
sister
!
new
and contrasts
for us
and
for
him
clouded by pecuniary
difficulties
him by personal
mismanagement
or family extravagance, or
by
his
of his
own
a lifelong friend, in
whom
he trusted,
not
But though
selves
eminent in
political contests,
public
life
crises as
made a
number
latter
of equally
and more powerful friends. These to come to his rescue, and offers of
were eager
assistance poured
THOMAS JEFFERSON.
in
285
all
Those
of a public nature
he
of
gratefully accepted.
the
sum
8500 5000
and
tion.
dollars
was forwarded
from Philadelphia,
from other
important
cities,
considerable sums,
and popula-
scheme
posed by some
Mr Jefferson,"
Dr
Randall,
"
that his
and that
would be
left
independent.
Happily he
of his contemporaries
many
over
the
when
his goods
and
were
;
sold
by public auction
his
and
in
without a place
it
which
Kings,
;
has been
but Democracies
286
and Eepublics are quite as often forgetful of the merits and necessities of their greatest benefactors.
Mr
Jefferson
had been a
sufferer for
many
years
to conceal
would have told severely upon him, even if he had been a younger man, told with crushing force upon
him
as
he approached fourscore, and which, comIn the spring of 1826 his strength
became seriously impaired, his appetite diminished, and the little food he was able to take failed to
afford
him adequate
its
nutrition.
retained all
He knew
month
of
June
in that year
he had a
strike
lingering
hope that
him
which he had done more than any man, Washington alone excepted, to secure and establish. On the
3d
of July, wrote
Dr
who
approaching dissolution.
He
slept
until
evening,
THOMAS JEFFERSON.
287
and on awaking, thought the night had passed, and " said faintly, This is the 4th of July." On learning
that the day had not arrived, he quietly sank to
sleep again, but
woke
past
noon
on
the
anticipated 4th
when he
was promore
breathed his
last,
Thus
his wish
was
and
his life
longed to the
still
memorable that day by the fact that the great Republic, of which he was one of the founders,
then
completed
the
fiftieth
year
of
its
inde-
pendence.
The
event, impressive
in
more impressive by the death, on the same day, of John Adams, his firm friend and predecessor in the Presidential chair.
still
was rendered
The circumstances have been already recorded in the life of that statesman (see p. 204), and were
commented upon
Thus
Jefferson
lived
man who,
in
all,
was the
288
most remarkable
man
of his age
all his
contemporaries, Washing-
worked
intellectually
Had
been
been
if his
far-seeing as
stupendous Civil
War
that from
1860
to
1865 im-
and rendered
it,
the shedlike
and dominion, and the right of the North to play against the South the part attempted to be played,
but
without
success,
by
George
III.
and
his
Neither
Washington nor
they bore
it,
or maintained it except
temporarily,
and with the greatest regret and compunction, as an but the means to evil to be eradicated in due time
;
THOMAS JEFFERSON.
accomplish which, with safety to
all
289
whose
its
interests
continu-
even
to
the
whose very existence might be imperilled by sudden Jefferson freedom, were not apparent to anybody
alone excepted.
It is a
common
error,
and a cruel
calumny,
late
mainof the
The
real motive
power
own
boundaries
that
their
undoubted
;
New
York
at another
Pennyslvania, and
all
the rest, at
supposed
interest,
tution
when
if
goaded into obstinacy by what they considered the illegal interference of the North, in matters which
were for the decision of the
1
1 South alone.
Mr
The whole question ultimately turned upon a side issue, and was T
290
Jefferson
immortal
"
all
free
and
the
was
an enemy of
slavery, either of
white
man
abolition in America,
if
that
im-
mediate
emancipation
as
even
greatly dangerous,
power
Politically, the North disapproved of slavery ; The new States that were disapproved of the negro. carved out of the great and almost illimitable Western territories of
men and by
European emigrants, and negro slavery was not permitted in them. The Southern slave States did not furnish emigrants to the West, and
were consequently, in default of their occupation of new territories, in danger of being continually outvoted and rendered powerless in
the great Congress of the nation.
As the North,
for political
Ocean, so the South, for political reasons, and for the conservation of the equipoise between the two great sections of the Republic,
west of what was called Mason and Dixon's line of latitude, in which negro slavery should be permitted. To this arrangement
the North objected
not so
much
Hence the war, and hence the abolition negro slavery by Mr Lincoln as a war measure, and not as one Christian justice and enlightened philanthropy.
of political ascendancy.
of of
THOMAS JEFFERSON.
and more solemnly
chief magistrate,
after
291
than
common
less
May
1826,
My
public.
Although
summated,
or
me
my
most fervent
prayer."
Jefferson's views
on the subject
effect
of slavery
were
unhappily without
trymen.
on the minds
of his coun-
They were far in advance of the public opinion of his time when first promulgated in 1784
;
as
in their
own
and
to
suit
own
pleasure
and con-
venience
North
free labour
was
profitable,
and slave
it
labour was
far
was
more
In the Northern
292
was only remunerated while the labourer was able and willing to work in the South
States labour
;
when
his labour
value.
Mr
who
Jefferson
was
also in
hostility
and
ill-will
Government
to the liberty
and indepen-
for the
unwise policy of
of maintaining friendly,
and indeed
cordial, relations
with
their
brothers
In
this respect
his country-
men, and help to strengthen the estimation in which his memory is held by all right-minded men on
both sides of the Atlantic.
293
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.
part played by Benjamin ^Franklin in the establishment of the Independence of the United
States
THE
was
eminently
great,
if
not
remarkably
brilliant.
the birth,
of
While there was something patrician in education, conduct, and public services
and
in
Jefferson,
Washington,
and
Adams,
his
fellow-labourers
Franklin
But
men
of undoubt-
ed genius as he in later
life
He was
the
born in Boston,
of
1706,
son
tallow-
man
and
politics,
and of
and books
294
of travel
spirit,
eager to see
what the world may be like beyond the bounBut as his daries of their native town or village.
access to a wider range of literature
in
was
facilitated
He
Boston as a master
printer,
and
to
him he was
The
brothers, however,
The
elder brother
was too
severe,
and the younger too proud and independent to endure control which he considered to be unreasonable, if
not unjust.
He
finally
who
made known
to
Boston
and the neighbourhood, so as to prevent the young man from obtaining employment at any of their
offices. ful,
His
efforts
and Benjamin
left
to
New York
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.
culty, in the office of aii obscure printer, a
295
German,
named Keimer.
of
He was
age;
own
He
worked
for
half at
miserable wages,
to subsist without
of this time
At
the end
of a friend
acquaintance, to
whom
the
name
of friend
was not
strictly applicable
He
an
office
Wild
Street, Lincoln's
Inn
Fields,
where he
which they ridiculed and sometimes resisted. The worked at this office is
preserved in London.
little
He
remained in Eng-
land for
he was induced by a
Mr Denham,
a well-to-do
ment
in 1727,
296
first year.
at
New
still
not over
liberal.
But
liberal
or
scanty,
he made them
sufficient,
acquiring reputation and credit in the meantime, and making friends on every side. The result was,
up business in Philadelphia in a small way, and to marry a young woman whose acquaintance he had made before his
journey to London.
From
this time
He established,
Almanack
'
and printed
'
Poor
Robin's
was continued
itself
by the homely
prudence, and
and maxims of
thrift,
which
it
struction
readers.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.
297
by his pamphlets on public affairs. His was broad, simple, and plain without any
any attempts
at "
fine writ-
trace of affectation or
"
ing
celebrated and
"
His
style,"
says
all
American
admirer,
"
was
adapted
to
tastes
like
they themselves
of
of Swift
and Addison.
all-pervading common-sense in
illustrations
its its
with
it,
that
it
may
more
effective
human
As
life,
in the English
language."
his pecuniary
means
increased, he
became an
influential,
298
growing city
Philadelphia, in which
his
home
first to
was
be
fixed.
He was
the
ment
of a public library.
He
originated the
;
first
Fire Insurance
Company
in Philadelphia
organised
measures for
panded into a University; headed a public subscription for, and afterwards obtained a grant from
the Legislature of Pennsylvania to endow, the
hospital
first
ever established
in
the
city
and made
himself conspicuous
either
in purse or person in
and philanthropy.
In the year 1747 he was elected one of the
representatives of
Assembly
of
Pennsylvania
life
the public
of
politics
in
which, on a
still
a part.
He
He was
sions
when
was heard,
remarks
they
short,
He made
no pretensions
oratory, which he looked upon, when studied with the view of creating an effect, with some-
of the
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.
299
for
and
patriotic purposes,
endow-
ment
University of
na
which waited upon him for the purpose " Na, I'll no gi'e a dollar no a red cent even to
:
of
all
free
"
!
countries, especially
of
England and
America
During the time that Franklin sat in the Assembly, a somewhat bitter controversy was raised by the heirs of the great William Penn, the founder of the
State of Pennsylvania,
the payment of
all
and
made himself
a
so conspicuous
by
his
antagonism to
demand which he
and unpatriotic, that he was soon looked upon as the leader of the anti-Penn movement. The question assumed such dimensions, that
as selfish, unjust,
it
London
300
whom
honourable post
They made choice of Franklin for the and he went to London, pursuant
;
to his instructions,
cessfully, that it
the
all
with those of
pay
the
public
to
burdens.
his
The
result
gave
such
that
satisfaction
Philadelphia!!
friends,
as
agent
general for
the
colony.
Massachusetts, Maryafterwards
intrusted
and
Georgia
shortly
him with
In
this
responsible
he
remained
for
five
years in
London,
many
learned bodies.
He was
of
chosen a
member
of
of
Foreign Associate
Paris,
and
was
not, however,
His
scientific at-
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.
taiuments
cation of
especially in the
electricity
301
and on
He was
general
of
second
time
appointed
in
the
agent-
Pennsylvania
London,
and while
acting in that
capacity, in
House
of
Commons
first
seeds of the
to take a revolutionary
colonies
and
first
the mother-country.
of the
symptoms coming rupture, and endeavoured But his efforts to act the part of peacemaker. were unfruitful; and the rude rebuffs which he
experienced from
men
until
temper,
ultimately
he
became
as
its
warm
friend.
302
the
dissatisfied
colonies
had been inspired by Benjamin Franklin. His lordship, while asserting that his plans and
opinions were entirely his own, spoke of Franklin
"
If,"
I were the
care
of
first
the
settling
momentous
business,
my
person
so perfectly
acquainted with
man alluded to. He is one, I am pleased to say, whom all Europe holds in high estimation from his
knowledge and wisdom, and ranks with our Boyles
and Newtons
nation
only,
an
but
to
honour,
not
to
the
English
human
of
nature."
Edmund
Burke, in the
House
Commons,
spoke in simil-
tinguished
life
had
continued."
of
But though an
was too acute and
and
history,
opponent
the
immediate
Britain,
he
life
a student of
not to foresee
the
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.
separation would become inevitable.
303
Three months
bour of
Boston, he
wrote
to
Mr
:
Winthrop, an
"
According to
are in favour of an
immediate rupture.
hope that a spirit of prudence will govern the country, and enable it to avoid a struggle, under the operations of which the
colonies
might
be
crushed,
and
prevent
their
As among
does not
friends
received
necessitate
so
among
nations a
war
is
At
present, accord-
my
notions,
it
will suffice
if
we
assert our
Not
Britain
levy
taxes,
but
called
always
illegal
opposed
tyranny.
the
exercise
what he
In
wrote
"
:
I have passed in
of
considerable portion of
my
this
life
many
relations
love
sincere
and esteem
wishes for
country,
304
its
therefore,
to
see
the
upon
As
regards America,
me
may
at present suffer
and might
suffer
for
separation.
position.
Surrounded by the
sea,
the advan-
and
lakes,
America cannot
fail
become a
great,
From
than
is
fetters
some
.
of
.
them on those who placed them upon her. There still remains among the American
people so
much
respect, veneration,
if
and love
for
she
may
several
centuries,
without
I
force,
pense.
But
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.
305
To avoid the
necessity
of taxing the
colonies
It
was
able
State
altogether
for
previously, in
of
when
completed,
into
two irreconcilable
lin's side
England and of the British connection. Frankwas taken, and, although the fires of his
he engaged in the cause which he had espoused with an ardour which many more youthful competitors
after
306
his return
meet in Phila-
delphia
that
very
Congress
which afterwards
pendent
States.
In this
crisis, to
Franklin's great
was
as a
He
son,
ceased
and never forgave him for his partisanship until a few days before his death, when the forgiveness which he expressed appears to have been
real,
less in
upon
pen,
when he wrote
some
of
it.
1731, was a
service.
man
of
distinction
and public
He
was appointed by Lord Fairfax in 1763 as Governor of New Jersey, and acted in that capacity until the
dispute between the colonies and the mother-country
had become so embittered, that no Governor appointed by royal authority could be permitted to
enemy
of his country,
and sent
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.
as
307
remained
nearly
in
three
years.
During
to
his
imprisonment,
1777,
he
applied
visit
General
for permission to
ill
his wife,
who
captivity.
request to Congress,
who
Franklin,
who
The
suspicion,
A
to
memory
of this lady in St
Paul's Church,
New
part
whom
him
While the rough draft of the Declaration of Independence was under the consideration of Congress,
that
he writhed a
little
it
criticisms to
which
the hypercritical, as
judicious
members
of
assembly.
But none
308
But
under
it
his attention
and Franklin, with a view of distracting and amusing him, told him that he
it
made
it
a rule, whenever
was
in his power, to
draftsman
of
any document
by any
"
When
was a journey-
man printer," said he, " one of my companions, who had served out his time as an apprentice,
resolved to set
printer, set
up
but as a hatter.
His
first
concern was to
up a handsome
scription.
He composed
;
in these words
sells
' :
John
Thompson, hatter
makes and
He
his
first
to
amendment.
The
man he showed
logous, because
hats,'
ter.
it
to
was followed by the words makes which sufficiently showed that he was a hatit
It
was struck
out.
well
be
omitted,
who made
if
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.
309
He
as
struck
it
out accordingly.
of the place to
sell
on
credit.
to pay.
The words were expunged, and the stood, John Thompson sells hats.'
his
inscription
now
next friend.
Why, nobody
!
will give
them away
'
What,
'
then,
the use of
obliterated.
those words
Sells hats
was therefore
The signboard was ultimately reduced to the name John Thompson, with the painted figure of the hat
*
subjoined."
of the year
to Paris, where, in
1778, in
Apropos
of this anecdote, it
may
a published
and that
military
if all classes
men among them. The criticism found its way into all " of all the London newspapers, and the words classes, civil as
C.
civil
and
M.
310
Government a treaty
fensive,
and deStates.
between France
and the
United
arise
The
war
between
Great
their
of the
established.
"
It
would be
'
difficult,"
says
to
the
Count de
Segur, in his
cordiality,
Memoires,'
"
with
what
favour,
were
received
in
Paris
and
Versailles, gave
air,
which
seemed
of
the
Even
and
of the
by
all
the savans,
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.
311
by
Congress,
and
enthusiastically
people.
approved
Its
and
promul-
gation was celebrated by public rejoicings throughout the whole of the thirteen " States," no longer
"
colonies."
still
at Valley
The
life
of the
"was assembled
in its
best array.
general feu de
joie,
and shouts
of
of the
!
whole army
Long
can
live
the
King
France
!
Long
at
live
all
friendly
European Powers
!
Huzza
for the
Ameri-
States
banquet
succeeded,
which
Washington dined in public with all the officers of his army, attended by a band of music. Patriotic
toasts
I never were given, and heartily cheered. was present,' wrote a spectator, where there was
'
'
of his
life,
his seventy-second
312
year,
and retained
which he occupied in the French capital, and might have retained it as long as he lived, till, in 1785,
the increasing infirmities of age, and his desire to die
at
home among
his
own
people, induced
him
to ask
success.
He
was a universal favourite among the courtly circles amid which his life was spent. To be an American
in Paris in those days
was
to possess a passport to
everybody's goodwill
and
his skill as
stories,
rendered
loved,
him
American par
;
excellence.
He
was
though
often laughed at
provoked,
was esteemed
and
respected
of
by
everybody.
The leading
then
politicians
the day
;
the
Republican
party
in
the
throes
of
the
tears
admired him
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.
313
for his
brilliant scientific
attainments
of fashionable society,
more especially the ladies, admired him for the charm of his conversation. But it was not female
society alone that he fascinated
by
his talk.
Presi-
dent
acquaintance
from
years
to me.
worth remembering."
He had
after-
of
The Convention
from
upwards
of
months
May
of
until
September
under
Difficulties
vital points
first
and serious
arose, as
differences
opinion on
week
the
of
its
acerbity
as
314
discussions proceeded.
though
ulti-
take part
in
though they did not cordially agree what was enacted by this, the most important
in
America.
was asserted many times during his long career that Dr Franklin had renounced Christianity
It
in his youth,
its
historical
Howthat
ever this
may
have been,
it
is
certain
its
he
great funda-
of loving
and of doing
as
Yet he
he departed from
among
much
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.
of prayer to
their
tion,"
315
Almighty God to calm and to enlighten " councils. In the situation of this Convenhe
said, in
the course
of a
short
it
and imwere, in
"
pressive speech,
which
is
groping, as
when
presented,
how has
it
happened that
our
?
of applying to
when we were
prayers to
sensible of danger,
to grant us
we
offered daily
Him
I
and the
I have of
God governs
the affairs of
men.
that,
We
and I
shall
God
aid us,
we
the
Tower
little
of
Babel.
We
shall
;
be
our
divided by our
and we our-
become a byword and a reproach to the nations down to future ages. And, what is worse,
mankind may
316
human
it
to chance, war,
and conquest."
that hence-
At
moved
and blessings
up in the Convention every morning before the commencement of business, and that one or more of the clergy should be
offered
Heaven should be
requested to
officiate.
invoked
the
aid
of
Heaven
at
the
daily
com-
mencement
and
as a
mere
would create uneasiness in the public mind with regard to the issue, concerning which
after-thought,
much
felt.
This incident
of the
whatever
Convention
may be thought
of the action
him, though
it
may
Franklin
disbelieved
the
divine
origin
of
Christianity.
At
amendments, a committee
the
of five
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.
317
Mr
awful
Union.
the
future
constitution of
the
him from
his
that
Convention
should
be
asked to
amendments that might be offered by the delegates. This proposition was strongly
decide on any
opposed by
lina.
Mr
"
said,
Nothing but confusion and contrariety," he will spring from the experiment of a second
"
Convention.
plans, and the
The
delegates,
discordant impressions
their
constituents, will
never agree."
draft.
He was
He
to the
power
of a majority
Washington threw the great weight of his name, authority, and influence on the other side
States.
of
Mr
Eandolph
for a
new Con-
318
When
on
the
document in
of
its final
17th
September,
"
Franklin
I confess,"
and
said,
addressed the
Convention.
he
which I cannot
at present approve.
But
am
not
For, having
many
instances of
being obliged, by
sideration, to
The
judgment, and to
of others.
this
Constitution,
faults,
if
There
is
what may be a blessing to the people and I believe further that administered
;
well
this is
and that
it
when
to
the
become
so
corrupted
for
as
need a
any
other."
Dr
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.
in its eloquence, as Sir Robert Peel
319
century
afterwards
be,
declared
the
Richard Cobden to
"
that,
for their
own
and
would act
heartily
compromising character
Randolph,
and
Mr
Gerry
remained recalcitrant,
was not
real,
Done
by the unanimous
17th day of December, in the year of our Lord 1787, and of the Independence of the The words, "the States United States, the 12th."
continued to take
civic
an
interest in
320
affairs
Philadelphia,
picturesque
appearance,
long
plain
were
of
mourned and
for his
own countrymen
eminent public
services,
career.
James Madison, who had served the high office of " that the House [of President, moved in Congress.
Eepresentatives] being informed of the decease of
Benjamin Franklin, a
citizen
human
were precious
mark
of
In Paris,
where he was
so well
known and
highly appreciated
in the National
Assembly,
the
Academie
des
Sciences,
and
American plebeian.
Mirabeau,
BENJAMIN FEANKLIN.
321
when
18th of June 1791, said in the Assembly "Franklin is dead. The genius which gave freedom to
America, and shed torrents of light upon Europe, returned to the bosom of the Divinity. The
sage
is
whom two
an
doubtedly
species."
elevated
rank
by proposing that the National Assembly should wear mourning for three
days, which, being seconded
He
concluded
by General Lafayette and M. de Larochefoucauld, was carried unani"All things considered," says Mr Eives, formerly American Minister in Europe, "Franklin
mously.
of his age.
Born
of his time
ments and learned assemblies in the native majesty of superior intellect and genius. The great and the
wise of
all
lands did
him homage.
The
friend
and
of
correspondent of
Hume,
of Eobertson, of
Kames,
322
warm and
elected
by an eager
own
and freedom
of classical
of
separably to his
Eripuit
name
fulmen, sceptrumque tyrannis."
ccelo
To
this
eloquent
and well-deserved
eulogium
323
JAMES MADISON.
JAMES MADISON, the fourth President
of the
United
States, played no very great or leading part in the struggle that freed the North American colonies
country
but the
the
New
World, and the drawing up of the constitution, was of the highest value and importance. He was the
youngest of the
five great
men
to
whom
the United
and
the establishment of
basis firm
their
independence
upon a
without
enough to defy all possible attack from and only vulnerable, as all human institu-
and corruption. Against the inroads and growth of these, Madison and Jefferson, and their colleagues in the mighty
work, took such precautions in settlement of the
articles of union,
of the con-
324
stitution, as
republican or autocratic.
March 1751,
"
the
who
and influence
He
never, however,
management
of his
which he possessed several, situated considerable distances from each other, to spare
affairs.
of his
home
in Montpelier, and
to Princeton College.
Here
Dr Wotherspoon,
He
He
returned
home
at the
ments were highly creditable to his talents and industry, but a keen politician, taking an enlightened interest in
all
JAMES MADISON.
325
The action
Gage in Massachusetts on the 19th of April 1775, in destroying some military stores at Concord in that State, on the pretext that
of Governor
and a similar outrage in Virginia on the following day, excited considerable indignation whenever the
events became known.
attack ordered by Lord
Virginia,
By
from
at
and took
forcible possession of
of
between
conveyed to their
As
of what had been done reached Fredericksburg, a meeting of the Independent Light Horse Company of the
town was
held, at
which
it
was resolved
to
march upon
Invitations
companies of
all
the neighbour-
326
result that
movement.
The
and president of the Continental Congress, became alarmed, and wrote to the leaders of the movement,
advising that they should proceed no further in the
business,
"
full
assurance
inasmuch as Lord Dunmore had given " that due satisfaction should be
was
re-
solved to adjourn indefinitely the further considera" tion of the subject ; but, considering the just rights
and liberty
of
America
to be greatly endangered
by
and by force of arms to defend the law, the liberty, and the rights of Virginia, and of any sister colony, This spirited from unjust and wicked invasion."
declaration, instead of concluding with the custom" ary formula of
God save
JAMES MADISON.
327
minatory words,
"
God
onies
nor was
it
Within a week
Mr
Company of Hanover, marched towards Williamsburg, to demand compensation for the gunpowder
which had been wrongfully
seized, or in default
"
to
make
reprisals
of suffi-
Lord Dunmore,
had been
illegal,
very
Mr Henry
exchange
for
of the powder.
Mr Henry
his
comrades in triumph
was upon
first
young
Mr
Madison
took the
that
was destined
be
so
memorable and
dis-
328
was charged by a meeting, of which his father was chairman, to draw up an address of
tinguished.
He
thanks
to
companions
ing
redress
from
he
blow
Virginia)
was a
and a
hostile attack
sufficient
of the colonies,
and
reprisal as
may
and welfare of the American people. During the twelvemonth next ensuing, the breach
between the Colonies and the mother-country continued to widen.
summoned
to
the colonies in a
was appointed
to
and the great George Washington command " all the forces raised and
to be raised in defence of
American
liberty."
;
Mr
his
of that Congress
but in
in
elected,
being
then
twenty-fifth year, as a delegate to the Virginia Convention, charged with the duty of instructing the
JAMES MADISON.
329
On
by which
decision in favour of
Government
as
would be
most likely
of Virginia.
to maintain peace
among whom was Mr Madison, was appointed for the purpose. The leading spirit of the committee
was
Mr
preserved.
during
its
tant of which
and not very important alterations, the most imporwas one proposed by Mr Madison.
The
as religion, or the
his Creator,
to
it,
by
force
or violence, all in
its
men
"
fullest
toleration
exercise."
Mr
Madison
on the
toleration,"
ground that it implied the possession of superior power, and that it granted as a favour and a boon
330
He
that
therefore
"
all
proposed to strike
out
the words,
men
men
free
exercise
of
religion,
conscience."
The amendment,
agreed
to.
some
discussion,
first
was
finally
This
was the
great
legislative
and procured
for
of
many
and in the mother-country. In the year 1777 he was chosen by the first ballot of the two Houses of the Virginian Legislature to the Council of State, a
sisted of eight
executive powers,
and without whose advice he could perform no official act. He was elected without his knowledge or consent,
so
a rare honour to
fall to
the lot of
young and so modest a man. Captain Patrick was then the Governor of Virginia, and in Henry
the second year of his incumbency, and a
considerably older than
man
Mr
Madison.
The Gover-
nor
knew no language but English, and the services of Mr Madison, who had an adequate know-
JAMES MADISON.
331
officers
who
of Virtheir
Marquis de Lafayette in
These
adventurous
volunteers
were
mostly,
like
out
the
slightest
knowledge
the
democratic
and Madison, in
after
life,
used often to
for
to
have to translate
Governor Henry
letters addressed to
him
as
"
Son
de
I'tftat
de Virginie."
In December 1779,
eight
Mr
years
of
age,
Assembly
of Virginia to
establishment
all
and recognition
of
now
It
all
332
civil
and military
officers
of
the
higher grades
States, exer-
of the
United
and description
raised
of
of the land
States,
forces to be
by the
to
several
fixed the
sums
money
common
to "
defence.
It
was
at the
be a
each
freedom,
and
independence, and
right,
con-
Nothing," says
Mr W.
of
The
Life
and Times
James Madison,'
"
could have
when Mr Madison
The main body
national career.
American
army was
still
and almost on the verge of dissolution, from the combined effect of short supplies of food and clothing,
spirit
of
dissatisfaction,
These brave
men were
JAMES MADISON.
333
by turns and
tresses
weeks together without meat or without bread, and in the extremity of their disfor
could
not
always
be
restrained
from
ir-
regular
modes
which the
law
of self-preservation
seemed
to excuse if not to
justify."
On
the
20th of March,
Mr
met
at Philadelphia
and
to
Mr
Jefferson,
who had
Mr
the
I
Patrick
Henry
of
"
:
Among
tions of alarms
and
the
distress
course
Eevolution,
is
with
pain
affirm to
can
be singled out
more truly
Our army
is
The public
exhausted.
empty, and
public
credit
Congress
complaining of
of the
improvidence of Con.
.
of
both.
These are
your own imagination to fill them up. As things now stand, if the States do not vigorously proceed in collecting the old money, and
I leave it to
establishing
we
334
are
undone
and
still
let
them be ever
so expeditious
in doing this,
are
a sub-
General Washington
writes that a
failure
of
menced
in the army,
and that
anything he sees
increase.
;
to the contrary, it
must inevitably
Meat
and as the
whole dependence
is
and without
credit
for
lifted
at last.
The
arrival of
fleet in
American statesmen with hope and courage. Affairs and the surspeedily took a turn for the better
;
render
British
at
Yorktown, in
the
October
1871,
of
the
army, under
Marquis of Cornwallis,
time the
was
virtually secured.
The
colonies,
during their
long
and
arduous
JAMES MADISON.
struggle,
335
had always commanded the sympathy and support of a large and influential portion of the
British people, not only out of Parliament, but in
Commons
haps no such obstinate enemy as the King himself, and such of his Ministers as agreed with him upon
the merits, or yielded their opinions to his for the
it.
lingered,
;
no part of the
Guy
Carleton,
New
that city.
On
enlisted
and returning
"
and
difficult
war,"
impressive document,
336
less
nanimity in
illustrious
achievements, which
them
At
the
either
wholly
spired
drawn up by Mr
appointment of
a contest which at
its
been so unequal.
eloquently set forth
The document impressively and that the Almighty " had been
through
that
all
He had
resolution
raised
that
He had
it
up a powerful
And
invoked the
"
to give
wisdom
to the councils of
an earnest
to
national
by
to
bless
them
their
husbandry,
smile upon
commerce, and
navigation
to
JAMES MADISON.
their seminaries
337
to cause
;
pure religion
and virtue
amongst them
to
fill
and
the world
of the legal
term of
this
Con-
Mr
porary
ber
close.
At
Decemand
1783, he
retired
his
father's
estate,
But had been interrupted by his public duties. though he studied law assiduously, he never was
called
upon
to practise it professionally,
mainly
it
for
for sub-
whom,
in prin-
him
to
do
so.
He was
him
too eminent
a man, and his public services had been too valuable and conspicuous, to allow
to indulge for a
once again
summoned
House
He was
election to the
Virginia, he
was chosen
represent
his
native
338
more than
six
months
influential
sphere of
all
During three years he took an active part in the politics of his State, without ceasing, howtake an enlightened interest in those of
ever, to
At
in the general
There was
still
much
difficult
and embarrassing
work
of
to be
as of their stable
spirit
if
The
separatist
was
all,
not
powerful and
of their
duties
component parts
of a great,
danger that
now and
who
desired to
it
into a strong
homogeneous power
and
whole world.
States
So early as 1783, the New England which had been mainly colonised by the
JAMES MADISON.
Puritans and the Pilgrim Fathers,
339
and
intolerance,
and
dence
had begun
New
York,
This
of
had
not
diminished
in
the
progress
Mr
of
testimony of a distinguished
for their
withdrawal
federacy."
and
formation
separate
con-
Mr
man
of the
want
of faith in his
countrymen,
The discontent
autumn
of
1786,
who had
army
of
Independ-
who
acy
et
armis.
He
340
instructed
General
Knox, the
head of a
sufficient force,
he deemed necessary
A
tober
Committee
reported,
of Congress
"that
from the
stated
in
information,
appeared that
in
dan-
gerous
parts
insurrection
of
various
the
State
of Massachusetts, which
its
was
rapidly
extending
influence
that the
insur-
of
made
to
for the
it
consequently
appeared
"
that there
was the
greatest
believe
that,
unless
JAMES MADISON.
their designs, the
341
selves
of the
arsenal
the
Government and not only the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to a state of anarchy and confusion,
but
probably involve
the United
States
in
the
if
the pur-
feeling
would
be created
all
sary increase to
of
the Union,
who were
considerable trouble.
capture of
150
prisoners.
for such it
The
lective
rebellion
was
form
after
this
defeat,
but continued
in
detached
Massachusetts,
less
Many
of
of
the
the law
342
mont, and
New
refused to deliver
of the
very
painfully
imthe
;
and
sympathy which it excited in several other States and wrote a letter to Mr Madison on the subject,
in which he said
tion, that in so
"
:
How
melancholy
is
the reflec-
short a time
we were but
left
!
to ourselves, our
.
dissolve
What
want
of energy in our
?
dis-
orders
If there is not
in it to check them,
what
perty
this
security has a
?
To you,
life,
subject."
Mr
"that
Madison, in
his
diary of
the
February
1787,
stated
all
existing shape
was
for
last.
The members
the southern
the
JAMES MADISON.
part due energy to
its
343
Government.
Mr
Binghain
of Philadelphia alone
avowed
its
great extent
and various
single
Government."
A Convention
met
in
1787
and growing question of a real union of the States, and the affirmation on a basis too firm to be shaken
of the central or Federal power.
Of
this import-
ant
body,
Washington,
Jefferson,
all of
Franklin,
and
them
lent their
influence, cause.
Union
Mr
the subject.
dressed to
would grow and strengthen and that the bulk of the people would probably prefer the lesser evil of a partition of the Union into three more practic;
monarchy.
At
present," he said,
;
"
no money
is
is
paid
no respect
paid to the
344
Federal authority
the requisitions
made upon
some
of
them pass
Confederacy.
Government
by Washington, Adams, Jefferson, and Franklin respectively, was as much indebted to Madison as
to
any of these
the
for the
happy
of
in
establishment
States.
the
constitution
of
the
United
Under
War
of
;
1861-1865
only to be
placed
it
for
while in abeyance
restored, with
some
These modifi-
by
legal
and
solely as a
of the State
pushed
had
JAMES MADISON.
justified
345
and might hereafter justify the secession of any State or States from the Federal Government. In those early days of the Bepublic, before the
first
tion
established,
either in the
camp
or the cabinet
to
who
aspired to
office in
On
the
was a passport
to their favour, as
was
Jefferson,
at a later
though not
man.
tion
distinc-
ac-
knowledgment
his victorious
campaign against
who
received on
King George and the Ministry and Parliaments of the mother - country, were too conspicuous to be igIII.
346
he succeeded
taining
Mr
122
He
during
a
his
incumbency,
term in
he
was
elected
to
second
1813.
His tenure
war declared
by the United
held to have
been
Mr
had resolved
to revoke the
American people, had time been allowed, and more patience and management
so
much
offence to the
exhibited.
lent
But passions had been excited, and viocounsels prevailed. The moderate and peacewith varying fortunes
war was
until
declared.
It lasted
1815, without producing any tangible results, first on one side except a few barren victories
sequences of any great importance, except the creation of national animosities that
it
required the
lapse of
to extinguish.
JAMES MADISON.
347
incidents of the
engagements
between
the
Chesapeake,
Hampton Eoads,
off the
mouth
of
the Chesa-
peake, in
On
board of
48 men were
killed
and
98
wounded
and
24
killed
59
wounded.
fatally
afterwards, at Halifax, in
Still
Nova
Scotia.
upon the
British force of
Washington in August 1814, by a 5000 men believed by the Ameriunder the command of General
force,
cans to be 10,000
Ross.
The American
was badly commanded and ill-disciplined. were no funds," says Ingersoll, an American
There
historian,
"though the
city
There were no
rifles
nor
flints
enough
American
gunpowder was inferior to English. There was not a cannon mounted for the defence of the seat of
Government
not
348
litia of Maryland and Virginia were worn down by mortifying and disastrous service, routed and dis-
heartened.
of
of regular troops
all
tried in fire
'Was like
that of coin to
so
At
the
first
utmost alarm
The Secretary
of
fall into
the hands
enemy, set
fire to
new
sloop-of-war with
new
schooner,
on the
stocks,
and machinery.
On
flying
Georgetown
upon
Washington.
Mr
Madison
some
of the
most precious
Washington which adorned the principal public room of the White House. The city, before the arrival
JAMES MADISON.
of the British,
349
slaves
was plundered by gangs of escaped and other ruffians, and much damage was
done.
in
as
it
fired
upon from
Every thought of accommodation or truce was now dispelled. The furious soldiery broke
into the house from
all
fired,
put
War
Office,
was
said, of
Mr
Madison
to
fire
of this
un-
New
350
who was
Jackson
was the
first
of
the
grossly
illiterate Presidents,
false pretence or
He
had an abundance
as
of
the
uncommon
quality
known
common -
sense.
of this quality,
but principally
by
proud
offshoot,
At
when
he was succeeded by
Mr
Monroe,
Mr
Madison was
and farm at
Orange, in
of
in
his
native
county of
of of
the
buffetings
strife,
party
that
consequent
private
fortune,
JAMES MADISON.
public service.
351
He managed He
also
recommenced the
proficient
law
in which he
was no mean
and
of
literature,
He was
nearly twelve
serve
as a
member
of the
and
also
But the
infirmities of age
;
upon him
and
few months in
all
future participation in
in Vir-
ginia or
retired,
in Washington.
he by no means
lonely
life.
of all the
men
of his time,
more
especially of the
own
party.
was particularly fascinating, not only wit and humour, and the fund of anecdote
at his
upon public
affairs,
and
all
the leading
352
He
by
his
wife
to
whom He left
no
to that of
public functionary of
his
age and
With
may
ments,
zeal
but
none
differing
from
his
fellows
in
and
utility in
edifice of
American
to
353
five great
founding
who
enits
shape
its
an independ-
all
we
recorded in history.
from
of
democratic liberty
which they had reared for the world's wonder. The independence of the thirteen colonies, or, as
" States," was they afterwards called themselves,
continued
354
and
satisfactory
all
as
to
allay
jealousies,
sions,
prevent
future
animosities,
dissen-
and disagreements, or to reconcile conflicting The opinions of these five men ideas and interests.
were by no means in complete accord, and were
shared, in their several degrees of divergency,
large classes of the people.
sible
;
but compromise,
difficult
appeared
attain-
during
able.
of the parturition,
was
or less willing
The form
no
future
difficulty of choice.
A
if
was
impossible,
and,
would
have
been impolitic
exist
and unwise.
out
of
whom
the Americans
have
it
an emperor, unless
whom
nineteen out of
twenty Americans would have refused to acknowledge in either of those capacities, and
besides,
who
was,
much
and far-seeing a
355
strive for
were non-
Even the
wanting.
Washington,
of
the republics
was the
aristocracy of colour
by the unwritten laws and usages of which every white citizen was a virtual aristocrat, compared with
his dark-skinned brother.
Each
sity a
was
of necesoff the
had thrown
yoke
and
it
and
356
civilisation
but
it is
any length
of life is
be expected for
it,
extent
among
The
be
may
of their
hard
lives will
permit
in-
noblest faculties of
mind
probability never
which the
church,
the
chapel, the
college,
board
may
empirically employ to
make them
so.
who had
means
the
lives
of subsistence,
legitimate
possessors
the
soil,
for
their
and
flourished
virtues
of
357
In-
them
for self-government,
of
them
naturally.
alone,
it
A
but
retically
the
best,
even
although
of
might not have been the only form government which they could establish. The
greatest danger
either
if
in-
not
intelligence
still
would be perverted to base uses by the struggle for existence and the desperate and immoral competition for wealth and position, the
invariable
populous
The founders
aware of these
of
itself,
and
and
Union,"
358
and not a
The
first
idea,
however,
of
Union," but of
"
Confederation."
But the name found no support among the people. One party not led by Washington, but of which
Washington was the most illustrious and influential, and Alexander Hamilton the most eloquent
adherent
desired to nationalise
and
to concentrate
commonwealths should
among
themselves,
tion
erned, should
much
many
States.
This dis-
not appear
the
name
future
to
new Commonwealth, and trusted to the make practically right what might be
the true founders of repub-
theoretically wrong.
359
man
in his sphere as
that
with
its
its
own
own
legislature,
its
and
own method
administering
Federalists,
own
affairs.
The Washingtonians,
and Centralisers so
far prevailed as to supersede the temporary confed" a more perfect union." eration by what was called
This
turns
approved and
attacked by
gested.
parties, as
whim
or necessity sug-
It
was
and
till
held
its
ground
the election of
three years.
Mr
Lincoln
a period of seventy-
From
the very
first
to
who
called themselves
if
360
their
Thus,
of their
They
started
upon a treacherous
basis,
and
liberty
was secured by
action
;
ment
in
and eventually to fuse into one grander nationality than the sun had ever shone upon, the incongruous and widely-extended comcrease its authority,
monwealths
the
still
and eventually
more incongruous and more widely-extended populations that sooner or later would extend to the
Pacific,
of the
North Ameri-
can continent.
inspiriting.
it,
What
to those
who
indulged
if its
realisation could
361
They accepted
all
contingencies
and
for
first
place
among the
nations,
and the consequent power to overawe Europe, would have yielded everything to the central power which
they created.
The disruption
rights
of the
Union
threatperiod.
with
citi-
Mr
Josiah Quincy
a very eminent
among
it
At
the
Hartford Convention in
New
mently opposed
war with
New York
and
362
the
New
England States
comprising Massachu-
setts,
Connecticut,
Ehode
Island,
Vermont, and
New
Hampshire
by the blockade
remained
and
rigidly maintained
wharves in consequence.
and
all
determina-
Government agreed to a peace with the mothercountry and the disaffection expressed by the dele;
and
disruption which was the war had not been happily ter-
the
reasons.
But a
far greater
when
a formidable at-
State Democracies
and
all
the States
that
of Independence.
elected
to
the
was
the
functionary
He under whose auspices the attack was made. was a man of the lowest class, born among the
363
of
a small British
force at
New
He
;
was a profane swearer, a bully, and a drunkard but a good soldier, an able commander, and an
upright,
for
if
He was
his
scarcely
busy and
;
rough
always
as it were, in
all
times
for the
smallest offences.
"
as
Old Hickory
of the
name given
to
him by
the vul-
garest
people,
character
in the
American
He was
a hatred of debt, of paperrampant aversions and of Great Britain. His hatred of Great money,
Britain
in-
ousy of
its
of the
364
world.
The
of
the States
to
the liberty of
people,
but beit
cause he thought,
firmly maintained,
would
whole
Panama
In this
with
the
he
was in
popular
passion
contemporaries,
the
lapse
of
time
seems to have
strengthened,
by the
Union
wantonly
southern border
and
of California, the
to
be each sovereign
own
boundaries,
if
col-
365
capacity.
The Vice-President
was a
the cele-
brated
Mr
Calhoun
man
of
a different
character,
and had
Consequently, after
office,
he resigned the
Mr
Calhoun.
to the year
Up
1828
during the
first
term of
the expenditure of
States,
had been so
small,
much
difficulty in
devising a
means
The
surplus,
and consequently
unnecessary revenue, was derived from the heavy duties levied by the Protectionists on foreign goods
not, as
for
The
Protectionists
their
principle
proposed
to
in
full
operation,
to
distribution,
the States in
The Free-Traders
366
agricultural,
objected to a protective
which the Northern States reaped all the real or supposed advantages and proposed, instead of divid;
all
surplus for
which would produce a merely sufficient revenue, to meet the small expenses of the Central
est rates
Government.
throughout
Upon
the whole
this
Union,
General
Jackson
The
favour of Protection
a
to
modification
of
its
provided
ment
to
protect
and
encourage
native
industry
were affirmed.
Mr
of
man
and
the
statesman, a master
tongue and the pen, an acute logician, in his manners and conversation a gentleman, and a natural
aristocrat
neither a
of
rowdies, such as
367
Mr
Calhoun,
in
the
Senate,
mouthpiece of the Free Trade party, the antagonism between him and the President became violently
personal as well as political.
was formally introduced into Congress in December 1831. Long debates which lasted for seven months. In the ensued,
at issue
The question
summer
of
protective duties, vehemently opposed by Mr Calhoun and by the Southern members, aided by a few Northern men, was passed by both Houses in
and in
The
result
and early in
whole people,
what
quence pursue.
in
November,
and agreed to the memorable Ordinance of Nullification," which was passed unanimously amid shouts
of bewildering excitement
ing,
every
life
368
support.
or parts:
"
That the
tariff
law
of
to
the
same
of
1832, were
void,
its
and no
or
officers,
"That no
duties
its
amendment, should be
or permitted
to
be
day of February 1833. " That in no case involving the validity of the expected nullifying Act of the Legislature, should
an appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States
be permitted.
No
Any
"
attempt
dealt
from which
State,
whether of
an
office,
That
if
369
by means
of its
army
or navy,
by
closing the
would no longer consider herself a member of the Federal Union the people of this State would
lina
;
thenceforth
hold
themselves
to
absolved
or
from
all
further obligation
maintain
preserve
their
States,
and would forthwith proceed to organise do all other acts separate Government, and
may
of right do."
Mr
uphold them.
"
I recognise,"
he
"
said,
no allegiance as
paramount
to that
which
owe
to the State of
I publicly declare,
and wish
it
obligations to
370
ment
my duty
He went
"
if
to execute them,
the utmost of
my
power
to
perform."
by the
God
or been cherished
raising
by her bounty, would be found a parricidal arm against her and that even
;
by her enemies,
not fly to
who would
down
"
could not be
drawn down from the proud eminence on which she had placed herself, except by the hands of her own children. She asked but a fair field, and no
more.
Should
she
succeed,
it
would be glory
enough
for her to
work
of reform. And if, after making these due to her own honour and the greatness
cause, she were destined utterly to
fail,
of the
the bitter
371
The remaining
States of the
Mr
Calhoun, to
Washington.
and
left
deeming
worthy.
in
The South Carolinians were thoroughly earnest. The young and middle-aged, even the
old
men, enrolled themselves enthusiastically as volunteers, and submitted themselves to daily drill, an hour's notice
to
to be in readiness at a day's or
by
force of arms.
The
real
or imitation palmetto
the
State
emblem,
to be
worn
in the
caps
Everything
if
presaged
the
arbitrament
of
war,
President
him
tremity.
The
ladies
all
wore
the
nullification
372
badge,
it
on
the
breasts
of
their
children
as nurses,
and even the negro slaves who acted and the negro slaves who worked in the
rice
cotton
of
or
plantations,
displayed
the
badge
hostility
to
the
Central
Government.
The
at
truculent
General
Jackson
of
of
provoking such
an
outburst of
all
wrath in
probability have
Union
from
causes which would not have estranged the sympathies of Europe, but, on the contrary, would have
bated
to lead to
and
of
one side
the inscription,
Confederacy."
"
com-
Mr
Calhoun
373
Washington or the Northern States, be construed into treason and swore with pro;
fane
oaths
not
only at the
times,
which were
by no means infrequent, when his brain was inflamed by raw whisky, but in the early morning, when he was sober that if he were found guilty,
he would have John
C.
Calhoun hung
"
as high as
Haman."
"By
I'll
tie
up the
By
They
the
are
God
of
heaven
trying
me
too much."
;
but, as
was
more
dignified,
though
equally
resolute.
Mi-
Livingstone,
who
drew up by his advice and inspiration a proclamation, addressed to the whole of the American people,
which stated
his firm determination to
uphold the
and
to crush
by
force
The
and
374
pernicious,
uproot
the principle
liberties
not only
and
not successfully
"the establishment
of a
CONSOLIDATED
worst
of
all
EMPIRE,
one
and
indivisible,
the
despotisms."
Mr
that
Calhoun
may
or
may
by brave
and
flatulent speeches.
At
all events,
whatever
the
may
Senate, of which he
to
continued to be a
difficulty.
member, an attempt
compromise the
By
that compromise
which was
at last effected
agree with,
or, if
The eminent
senator,
Mr
Clay,
whose
name and
the South
to that of
Mr
Calhoun,
introduced
Bill providing
that
the
protective
two years be
375
all
to
twenty per
cent, or as
much lower
should determine.
With some
Mr
Cal-
South
acquiesced with an
less
grace,
contented
more
or
to
adjourn
for ten
settlement of
et
armis to impose
its will
on an indepen-
The President
as
During the remainder of his life he cherished a vindictive and unchristian animosity against Mr
Calhoun.
spiritual
Dr
Edgar, his
Mr
man
sprang suddenly up
momentary
as high as
and exclaimed,
!
"
Hung them
up,
sir,
Haman
doers for
They should have been a terror to evilall time, and posterity would have proto
nounced
it
my life."
376
This vital question of State rights was not only held in special favour by the South, but by the
North.
The
20,000,000
West
Indies, gave
an immense
States.
The enemies
of
free labour
and more
;
slavery in the
and philanthropy, as well as by the purely philanthropic and non-commercial example of Great
Britain,
set
emancipating the
negroes.
377
mous
on
the legal
sovereign,
for
without asking
of
or expecting
co-operation
any
other.
affec-
Ehode
"
Island,
called
tionately
little
Ehody
by
its
people, first
for
moved
the example
Independence,
enacting
that
and
all
led
the
way
in
1*775,
by
children
thereafterwards
born
out manumitting
its
free.
New York
abolished
1783
1792
;
wards, in
from
its
New York by
Hudson
1820.
river, did
not see
said,
way
to abolition until
It
must be
378
what
their
knew
to
be inevitable, by sending
young and able-bodied slaves into the South, and The selling them to the best available advantage.
abolitionists in these
Northern
unhappy because the Southern States did not tate their example, and instituted a zealous
paganda
forgot
for
imipro-
the
coercion
of
the
that
South.
They
or
ignored
the
fact
the
economic
in
Eepublic.
Meanwhile a new and highly important element in the case was yearly assuming larger and more
important dimensions.
The
free
Northern States
of
West by
earlier
settlements
Atlantic seaboard,
who
ambition, and
original States
their earth-
hunger.
The
thirteen
had grown
379
twenty or
thirty,
free of
it
the burden
or guilt
they considered
of negro slavery.
the
thirteen
older
States
establish-
ment
of
Republic,
extending
the
continent,
and possessed
far superior
Italy,
of resources, agricultural to
and mineral,
France,
of
those
of
Great
or
Britain,
Spain,
or
Germany,
any
this
other
the
European
the
monarchies.
area
of
And
of the
natural
growth of
the
on the minds
the
"
South
ought
"
also
expand,
and that
its
manifest destiny
West
Indies,
was resolutely acted upon, and led acquisition of Texas and California.
The
crisis
partnership with
the
slave
States
380
to abolish,
of separation.
many
long years in
imposed upon The idea was present the minds of the lead-
ing publicists
and people
of the
expressed in
1848
in
emphatic language by
Mr
of
W. H.
in
Mr
War
more.
city
He
all
whose
sympathies
were
in
favour
of
the South
of
able,
and
that,
come when
it
example
and
utility of
Mr
on
dreaming that
of events
liberal
would transform the peaceable philanthropist and statesman into the most truculent and
381
'
Mr Horace Greeley, the celebrated editor of the New York Tribune,' who exercised a powerful influ-
cated separation.
recited in speeches
abolitionists, "
flaunting
He
and
"
in the
American ship on
the ocean.
He
and a return
"
to their allegiance
the
"
Old
Country
anything
rather
than
The Northern
States, however,
mous on the
of its abolition.
and high,
all
if
not
upon
the rnanu-
382
factured goods that Great Britain and Europe could supply, than for the freedom of
skins,
men
with black
whom
Pro-
of
goods
to
the
minimum
that
would produce a
all their influ-
With a view
entered into an immoral contract with the celebrated Daniel Webster, beyond all comparison the
but he was a
habits,
man
of luxurious
encumbered by a load
as
of debts,
as
well
and
fought, at the
383
He
continued to fight
it
with
unflinching
courage and
spite
it
In
of the
The people remembered his marvellous eloquence, but did not remember his equally marvellous venality and every pulpit and platform
out
all
America.
and
One only
of
voice
was
Boston, a
Unitarian
preacher
great
power
and
popularity,
who
phi-
memory
a tremendous
Mr
ical
dishonesty.
War of
Independence.
Their ranks had received very few if any accretions from the large European immigration of Irishmen and
384
and the recently settled Western States. The newcomers were ignorant of, or wholly misunderstood,
the foundations on which American liberty rested
;
democratic
self
government
of the several
States,
and
of their
and as com-
Mr
New
Englander,
number
of the States
and
Territories,
them
in
memorable words, that the country was "too big for union, too sordid for patriotism, and too
in
Year
ment increased
in
number,
and
the
candidates
Union.
total,
Political services
of
exclusion
merit
were the
;
sole
qualifi-
due
by General
385
who maintained
This doctrine
all
in force,
though condemned by
wrongly-appointed State
officials
may
prove to be,
at
along with
the Presidents
who appointed
incom-
them, to
make room
ing President,
who
President Lincoln, a
man
and sturdy honesty, saw the evils of this system, and would have remedied it had it been in his power. He sometimes
of mind,
told,
"
spoils
who
obscure
man
to the Presidency.
looking fellow
week in the White House," said the was visited by a strong, hearty, dirtyfrom Kansas, I think, he said who gave me a
settled a
I
"when
me
that he had
made
me
I
;
President.
'
but
'
how
people have told me the same thing,' said did you make me the President, if you really did
'Many
so
'
My
vote carried
;
my
and
my
State
I
therefore I
made you
President.
' !
And
' do something for me in return But what do me to do ? I asked him. ' I want you to give me the you expect Embassy to London or Paris,' he replied. 'Impossible,' said I;
want you
to
'
filled
he,
have no objection to
'
386
There
"
was
time
Nullification
of
Mr
Lincoln
I.
Mr
he
;
Buchanan in
I'll
bespoke,' said
stantinople,
'but
take Con'All
if
me.'
the
New
up long ago," said I. 'The CollectorYork would suit me capitally,' said he,
'
' turning a quid of tobacco in his mouth ; or if that be disposed of, I would accept the collectorship at Boston or elsewhere. Utterly
'
I.
'It's
cussed
I
hard,
said he,
'
after I
can't
'
trouble.
I.
office.
'
Well,
Mr
that
it is
an infernal
shame that you can't give me anything at all. Can you loan me twenty dollars?' 'I have parted with my last dollar,' said I,
it.' 'Well,' he rejoined, 'though I'm greatly disI'm not proud. Can you give me an old coat, or an old appointed, I found him an old pair of boots, with which he pair of boots ?
'and can't do
'
-went
away
and
pawned them
at
months of the War of The Federal army had been defeated by the Confederates at Bull Run, and made a somewhat precipitate retreat, which excited much unfavourable comment at the time. " It is quite a mistake," said a Northern politician, who doubtless wished
well to the Confederates,
Bull Run.
The
fact
is,
to say that our army was defeated at that a rumour circulated in the ranks that
"
several vacancies
New York
ears
Custom-house.
officers
of the
York, in order to be first and the whole army, filled with the
New
387
when
the
cry of
it
secession
was unheard.
so
During the
question
interval
was not
as
much
the
of Free-trade
although
the
question
lost
of
the
of.
prohibitory
sight
The per-
sistent agitation,
together with
in
the
refusal
of the
Northern people
cases to
fugitive
many
afterwards
celebrated
in the
New
England
by what was
alive
called
the
"
content
the dis-
in the
of
North
and West.
what was
known
to
as the
prevent
the
the
slave-holding
area
the lati-
tude of
agitation,
and rendered the North more aggressive and the South more defiant than they had previously been.
388
of
any of the territories that might afterwards become States of the Union, the question of
chief
disruption
of
members
parties.
Mr
having
Buchanan, the
Democrats, occu-
or no hope
of
electing a President
more loudly
ing faction,
who were
if
Union
of
it,
as it stood,
and rule
it
principles.
jority,
ma-
which was composed of the whole voting power of the South, and supported by a very large and influential section in the older States of the
North, being only in a minority in the newer States
of the
North and North-West, where the immigrants from Europe, and especially from Germany and
Scandinavia, were mainly in favour of the Republican party,
and more or
with
in
the Abolitionists.
fact, too
reliant
on
contemptuous
of
the
weakness
of
the
389
management
of its resources, or
strength of
its
At
1860
it
combe
itself to
instead
Its
of
concentrating
forces
upon
opponents,
who
were
weaker
an unknown and very humble man, whose name had scarcely been heard of beyond the limits of the State of Ohio, and was not held in great estimation
even there, except by a very few who knew the
sterling
that had
marked
his career.
whom
Amer-
and Breckenridge
Mr Buchanan. At
Mr Mr Mr
Douglas,
Bell,
.
1,375,157
.
,
590,631
Breckenridge,
847,953
amounting in all to
390
Democrats.
On
Mr Abraham
votes
cast
Lincoln,
1,866,452
million
by the Democrats, but nearly half a more than were cast for Mr Douglas, the
list
highest on the
of
his
opponents.
Thus
Mr
Lincoln, though he
was the
Thereof
sprung woes innumerable to his unhappy country, and a civil war, unsurpassed in its magnitude in any
free country.
Mr
and an
of
State
He was
often
first
He
invariably re-
the
moon
or
the abolition of
States alone,
and that
was
for
them
to deal
with
own
time, in their
391
by the
legal
action of
New
and
Eights
party of
the
steadily opposed
tionists, as inconsistent
and
indivisible, to
upon the ruins of the small separate republics that formed an unstable and incohesive Union,
which had been in continual danger
ever since
its
of disruption
establishment.
conflict,
The
inevitable
modern
times,
the
The
of Harper's Ferry, in
by a mad enthusiast named John Brown, who thought at the head of a handful of negroes,
Virginia,
as himself
to
John
to
for high
of Virginia.
392
and not
like a
madman,
to
His memory was enshrined in a song, afterwards sung by countless thousands of black and white
abolitionists,
to
popular
hymn
tune, borrowed
John Brown's body lies mouldering in the But his soul is marching on."
of
grave,
consequence.
of
It
outbreak
the
occurred,
might possibly have been averted, but which, in the highly inflammable temper of the Abolitionist
and Union
party,
then
became
inevitable.
The
hostilities,
when General
command
of
the
"
whole North" by directing his shots against sacred flag of the Union," which the zealous
abolitionist,
"
a polluted
rag,"
and causing
to be hauled
down ignomini-
393
of
was erected
for Federal
and not
The action on the part of the South was planned and deliberate, but it had the effect on the Northern
mind
of a
torch applied to
a powder
magazine,
of
wrath
the
Republican
liberty
party,
to
its
shaking the
edifice of
American
very foundations.
The was
(500,000,000), a sum which would have paid for the manumission of the slaves twenty times
over,
as
proprietors,
all
human
suffering
for years
;
done
its
best to provoke
and the
South, in
its
like
right to
394
dissolve a partnership
distasteful,
which
it
found unprofitable,
it
and oppressive.
But
at
the
moment,
inaugurated what might otherwise have been a peaceful and legal separation, by an act of war
;
by impartial history as anything but a rash and unwise appeal to the ultima ratio
sidered
long
erroneously
of
considered
to
be
the favourite
argument
kings
and
first
But though
it
must be conceded,
it
at
in defence
what they considered to be their freedom and independence, and that the North, in accepting the
challenge, accepted
it
for purposes of
mastery and
of
an
unwilling
itself.
Mr
who
virtually
was ever sanguine as to the success of the Northern arms. He had predicted and recommended, many
years
previously,
as
we have
already seen,
the
395
peaceable and bloodless disruption of a Union distasteful to both of the great sections
which com-
posed
it;
fired against
war as he had been previously zealous for peace, and rendered himself conspicuous for his truculence amid the many truculent states-
an enthusiast
men
of his
party.
He
by the South and the powers of aggression possessed by the North and was never weary of predicting that the North would end the
resistance possessed
;
war by the conquest of the South in " ninety days at the furthest. The phrase of " ninety days
"
"
became proverbial, even after nine times ninety days had passed in sanguinary battles, leaving the
South
still
unconquered and
defiant.
The South fought under disadvantages for which its own unreasoning pride and indomitable selfreliance
were responsible.
in
All
its
soldiers
were
the cause, and fought volunteers, enthusiastic without resort to the aid of foreigners and paid
mercenaries.
aid of
raised
its
It
was
of
too
proud
it
to
accept
the
slaves,
whom
if
might have
easily
and trained
them freedom
the
close
396
reward of their
often urged
if
But
this course,
though
adopted, would
all
pathy of
many
of
European enemies
formly rejected.
fidelity
was uni-
It
of the
subject, but
faith,
and a rooted
citizen, that
it
value
if
negro auxiliaries.
ingly
recruit
,
restricted
its
it
could
defenders
having no
aid
from the
it
never
share,
strict
if it
blockade
even
had been
desirable,
libitum
Old World
reckless
to
mercenary
of
soldiers.
By an
it
all
but
amount
Irish,
offered
every
grant
who landed
New York
or Boston,
it
secured
what promised to be a limitless supply men. The bounty that commenced at 100
of fighting
dollars
397
pro-
100, was
freely offered.
But though
its
money,
it
men
for
whose
fighting powers
it
had paid so
lavishly.
Civil
kills
fact of
which
North,
during
the
years
1863
and 1864,
had ample proof in the enormous prevalence of what was called " bounty jumping." By the operation
of
this
system
of
State
robbery,
an
im-
500
and
one
town,
his
of the
country,
made
way
money
tenth time.
in
New
York,
no
"
less
sixteen
times,
"
until
at
the
seventeenth
he was
law
jumped
into
eternity
by operation
of the
General Grant,
398
to
all
but limitless
resources of
men on which he
force.
He
felt
that he
one-half of the
"
men
receiving the
that, in
"
jumpers
and boasted
could
lose ten
North
had no better name to bestow upon General than the " Butcher," under
which cognomen the more outspoken journals of New York and other cities persisted in designatThus the Southern States were defeated, ing him.
after a gallant struggle,
periority of
by
their
own
help from
their
own
persons.
of the people
The government
for the people,
399
dom
of
of
mankind
;
to
be the best of
neither
all possible
forms
government
"
"
but
poets
nor
philoso-
strictly defined
people
who were
to
When
one
-
pressed
upon the
mankind
in the
persons of
women,
and another large portion in the persons of all the youth of both sexes who were under twenty-one
years of age.
Nor were
democracy
within
comparatively
narrow
bounds.
From
excluded convicted
and
general community.
It follows,
whether
it
be democratic or aristocratic
can be
Liberty
itself,
if
it
an-
is
an
400
those
who
constitute
it,
full age,
mental
the
faculties, consider
themselves to be the
best for
Were
all
and inordinate
self-interest,
was best
of extraneous
authority to maintain
wholly unnecessary.
existent
;
But
non-
anywhere and among the multitude in all whether the form of government be free countries and constitutional, or autocratic and despotic the
mass
of
mankind cannot
wisdom
political
or unselfish virtue.
is
the
numbers
increase, is forced
causes, against
which
of
it
is
vain to struggle
high
State policy,
their daily
in-
existence prevent
401
and enlarged experience, all these causes combine to render them unfit for the govern-
ment
The
man
for
man
should rule a great nation. They cannot claim for them even the adequate comprehension of their own true interests, or assert, if they would hope to be
believed, that either in theological or in commercial
who do
The
will of a bigoted
and to a tyranny, a
on the part
greedy,
of
that
the
imperium
especially
in imperio
more
and in public
rather
meetings,
where
fluent
oratory,
than
sound
common -sense
2 c
and
cogent
402
widely extended or
are,
ultra-democracies
and
as
distant period
of
popular speakers,
bids
fair
supersede wise,
silent,
ineloquent
Another
evil, in
among the
part of
poor
of rich
men
who
over
men who
are
eminent
for
their
genius or their
are
public virtues.
To the mob
of voters
man who
is
known
has
to be rich,
or perhaps thousands, of
infinitely
chance
greater
of
than
falls
who
might
solicit
their
suffrages.
403
domestic enemy.
and
file
of
all
competitors
and
Ultra-democracy produced
Andrew
if
men were
and whose claims, such as they were, proved sufficient to render nugatory these which were founded
upon the
culture, experience,
Force and
estimation
money
of
the multitude in
countries,
as
The wealth which an ultra-democracy greatly reverences, the members of an ultra-democracy will
do their best to acquire
if
honestly
if
honesty
is difficult,
by the
404
occasion
of
the
to
govern, and
masters.
The corruption
highest class
of
American
officials of all
but the
may
is
proverbial.
The members
and
of the
of
the
several
State
Legislatures,
composed
salaries of
for the
most part
men
to
whom
the
membership are an essential object, withof them could pay their way. It
them
all
but
it
men who
weak
are poorly
work
criminals
by popularly
New
ern States, that absorb for the most part the stream
of of
European immigration, than in the older States the Union, where the land is preoccupied, and
405
New
England.
To apply
to
man
engaged in
a well-to-do
or medical
any
sion
farmer, merchant,
practitioner
lawyer,
the opprobrious
him
as
much
The
pursuit
as
profession is generally,
many cases unjustly, considered in America what Dr Johnson more than a hundred
though in
" " years ago in England declared patriotism to be,
any
justification
of
the well-merited
politicians
odium
fallen
into
which
professional
have
is
ready
hand
of
any one
who
chooses to inquire, in
House
of Eepresentatives, issued
Washington in
"
after the
commencement
that of
War.
The
Eeport
is
of its operations in
It
House
that
5000
copies
of
406
all
evidence
on which
it
The
fill
1109
pages.
copy of
before
me
as I
write
and
New
York, a lover of
government,
gestive title
who gave
of
'
Political Purification
At
this
period
the
Federal
Government was
fair
market price
service.
An
agent
named
Starbuck, appointed by, and supposed to be acting for the benefit of, the Government, and to be paid by a commission of 2 1 per cent on the pur-
own
account, on
two steamers
for the
sum
of
6500
dollars.
He
for
Government
the
14,500
dollars,
on which
latter
sum he had
effrontery to
to receive
3625
dollars, or nearly
407
8000
dollars
Government.
p.
20,
"
by the
United
Committee,
was by them
New
by
of
3000)
money thus
obtained.
were found, when delivered at the Navy Yard, to be totally unfit for the service for which they were
required,
to a further
repairs,
The purchasing
State, in its sore
May
from
Navy Department
in Brooklyn
and
D.
the port of
New
Mr
G-.
and brother-
member
of the Federal
Government, the
extract will
Secretary of the
Navy.
The following
show how the new arrangement worked to the disadvantage of the Government, and that it was no more
preventive of peculation and robbery, under the
management
case in the
to be.
of so high
of
an
official,
hands
Mr
408
"
Although the Committee," says the Eeport, "have occasion at this time more particularly
attention to the remarkable arrangement
to
call
which existed
between the Secretary of the Navy and Mr Morgan, as to the compensation he was to receive for his services, they desire to notice, in passing, a single instance of deception
practised
upon
'
Mr Morgan
in the sale to
him
of a
new
vessel, the
had been
its
afloat less
This vessel
cost
owners but
$35,000 to build her, had earned, under a charter to the United States, in that two months $15,000 nett, and
to
Mr Morgan
by making
build her.
Mr Morgan
believe that
it
cost
$60,000
to
It is difficult to see
ledged business capacity and shrewdness of Mr Morgan, except that he had been called to a service in which he
ignorant, from any personal knowledge, of the cost of the article he was sent
"
The Committee quote from the testimony, not only to show how easy it is to practise, even upon men otherwise shrewd,
when
no personal knowledge, but also to expose the shameful manner in which the character of members of Congress
and
other officials
is
'
traded upon.
Mr
Benedict, one of
Stars
and
333)
"
Question.
Do
'
409
Answer. Yes,
sir
in the company that owned her. " Question. "What has become of her 1 " Answer. She was sold to the United States Govern-
ment.
"
Question.
"Answer. $55,000.
" "
Question.
Through
whom was
The
the purchase
made
Answer. I cannot
tell.
by the
the
president of the
company, C. S. Bushnell.
He was
Haven
Propeller
Company, which
1
owned the
"
"
'
Question.
When
was the
sale
made
Answer. I cannot
tell exactly.
I think
it
must have
is
last of July.
The reason
I think so
we
Had the
ly chartered to
'
been previous-
Answer. At $10,000
and
it
was
Government
$9000
1
a-month
"
"
Question.
What was
"
"
Answer. $55,000.
We
considered that
vessel.
we
built her
Who
410
"
little
tell the plain truth, the company knew The president always declined to tell us
much about
"
Question.
What
?
idea
had the
directors in relation to
the transaction
"
least,
that
it
was
"
Question.
He He
pay large
sums in Washington
"
Answer.
We
but he asserted
it
He
said that
pay
this
whom he was obliged to money were such, that he could not and would
He
finally so far succeeded in
pay him
the $8000.
"
.
him
company
Answer. Yes,
Question.
sir.
With which
sir.
very
well satisfied?
"
"
Answer. Yes,
Question.
satisfied to
have got
$35,000?
"
"
Question.
What
to get?
assistance did
he represent that he
was obliged
"
Answer.
He
411
it
was necessary
to get
men
"
Did
pay
for
"
letters
of introduction ?
Answer.
He
pay
persons in
Washington
''
Question.
"
Answer.
"
He
Washington?
he spoke as if they were members of Congress, or ex-members, or something of that kind, whom he paid for their influence. I will not say positively
Answer. No,
sir
whether he spoke of ex-members. " Question. And he stated that he was obliged to pay
out this entire
"
$8000 ?
sir
;
Answer. Yes,
at least
he stated that
this
two
it.
and a
"
Morgan was
to be taken out of
Question.
tion to "
whom
ground, then, did the stockholders, after he refused to give them that information,
vote to
"
"
Upon what
Answer.
satisfied
He
told
them a long
He
them that he could not approach the Government directly, that it was necessary to have assistance, and that in all probability he had spent this money."
412
quoted
show
the
scandalous
corruption
that
when
all
The
this
report emphatically
particular
of
condemned the
tion
whole
of
transac-
many
others that
were similar
by
from the
Secretary
the
the
Navy and
Mr Morgan
brothers-in-law,
service."
and military
lation
reader.
of
It
stores
of all kinds
the
may
suffice
to
state
that, at a
time
when
the
military
forces
of
the
Federal
Gov-
ernment, of
whom
German
of the
mercenaries,
who had
them
raw
recruits,
and growing
lads,
unable to
amounted and
and in
approximated to 500,000
men
in the field
drawn for
413
710,000
der found
way
may
"
all
politicians
in the
Popular elections
free
countries,
if
Great
not inevit-
by
practices
more or
less corrupt
especially
small, are
when
most
part,
of
men
condemned
grossing pursuits, without leisure, taste, or opportunity for the acquisition of political knowledge.
is
There
of
who
who
are nominated
but
who
nominate themselves
or in the
gress
at
and most engrossing is that for the Presidential office, which takes place every four
elections, the chief
years,
and which,
it
may
414
distracts
men
of
business, for at
least
of the four.
It is felt
its
by most
Americans
to be in itself
and in
preliminaries
a nuisance in
last, to
more
especially in its
tion,
and
men by
Their cost in
is
money
is
enormous.
The money
wrung from
both
politi-
men
of
of the
Union
chusetts
from Maine
to Florida,
to California
of the exorbitant
maintain
constitutional
or
other
monarch in
befitting state
and
dignity, as
vast Eepublic,
forget
how much
it
cost
to
him.
The
cost
may
though
it
approximately
estimated, at an
of
same period
of
the British
Publicity
is
in
The number
of
415
may
of
"
;
and every
As newsStates
paper
proprietors
if
throughout
the
United
generally,
and
political
number
of bills, placards,
and printed appeals to the public which are affixed to the walls, and lavishly distributed through the
post-office,
may
be counted by millions
during the
two years that the election is virtually in progress. The very large sums thus to be disbursed find their
way
and
more or
and
writers.
The
one of
of
and lighting of public rooms in every and in the great majority the large cities
hire
for the
pur-
item of
expense which
has to be provided
for.
To
this
streets
hours, to keep
up the
spirits
416
of
and proportionately to discourage his opponents by the noise and blare of his pretensions. The raising of this money is
one of the greatest scandals of the
America.
political life of
Voluntary
maintenance
of the cause,
by
its
no
but the
money
is
raised
by a compulsory
official,
great
his
place
to
his party,
refusal, of expulsion
is
from
the
" "
its
ranks.
"
made upon
"
;
outs
"
as is
made upon
the
"
ins
for the
"
if
outs
invariably expect to
successful
the
candidate be
well as realisations.
"
and hopes must pay as Such is the law of the " wireunseen, but by no means
pullers
who conduct
and self-appointed leaders of each party, on a scale varying from five to ten, or even twenty, per cent of the annual income of the offices, however humble
or
offices
may
be.
To the
immoral doctrine
truth
down by General Jackson, which is accepted as by all parties. The victors who enjoy the
417
the
"
spoils
"
a stipulated per-
efforts.
The
evil, is
widely
felt,
but
by
very
portion
of
the
thoughtful
aloof
men
in America,
from professional
politics as
or
during good
behaviour, as
they are in
other
countries.
whether
cratic
"
"
it
Demoa
party
though
it
forms what
is
called
plank
in the platform of
truly independent
men who do
Eepublic.
The great and fundamental error of ultra-democand especially in the United racy in all countries
States
is,
that
it
man
is
born, and
own
2
benefit,
418
community.
and ignorant demagogues, we are rapidly approaching to manhood suffrage, with an extension to
womanhood
right of
suffrage
in
due time
the
inherent
any one
suffrage
would be
and
wise,
men and women were invariably good and knew the true interest of the State
own
;
as well as their
men
are con-
that
We
still
think
it
wise and
power is anything but a privilege to be conferred on certain conditions for the benefit of the public
and not
like
of the individual,
for
and
to be withheld in
manner
satisfactory
reasons.
Law
because
declare
Law
who
is
and
to
to grant
them
privileges
accordingly.
if
cognisance of physical
not of intellectual
that, if a
man
419
and
liberty,
he
is,
State.
privilege, the
State
makes
him one
In so doing,
confers no inalienable
right
upon
him with a
privilege which
he
may
forfeit if
the
national
revenues.
is
It
is
system of what
Manhood,
and
suffrage,
which
is
established
in
America
France,
and
gradually extending
itself into
Great Britain.
To
that
which
it
is
unjust and
the
minds
of
it
the
is
them that
to pecuniary
expense of the
men
who
420
favour.
is it
The corruption that springs from this source by no means peculiar to the United States but may be stated with perfect truth, and without
;
exaggeration,
that
it
is
much more
is
prevalent in
unrestricted
than
it
is
in countries
where the
suffrage
is
privilege that
may
may
also
be
forfeited.
One
the perpetuation of
ment
the
Civil
of the
suffrage.
rights
of
millions
of black
of
men
to
Before
the
close
the
great
War
in
1865,
when
Abraham
Lincoln,
it,
deemed
military
of
necessity,
abolished
slavery
by
a
the
stroke
his
pen,
the
negro
to less
population of
Southern States
amounted
and
of the
than
half a million.
States
numbered upwards
all
seven millions.
is
The
cal-
negro population
European immigration,
at the rate of
421
the same
period.
Carolina,
and
Louisiana,
the
negro
population amounts
In other
not quite so
if
of
when
Of the 7,000,000
of negroes
all
among whom
no
less
read or write.
majority,
which
is
now
existing pre-
In any
powers
with
themselves
will
have
to
consider
422
whether manhood
colour,
is
and
The germs
the
of a
war
of races
one of
all possible
voting
wars
granted to
population.
Another great and more immediate danger arises from the venality of the multitude, and from the
constantly recurring nuisance of popular elections
especially that for the Presidential office,
which
and
Americans
like
to
confess.
all
But
perhaps
the
greatest danger
of
lies
by the conquest
the
to
to
make
and
State
minimise,
and
ultimately
to
abolish,
and the judgment of the founders of the original Union in the days of The desire is for ascendancy and Washington. dominion rather than for liberty, a passion which
Eights, so dear to the hearts
423
the vice of
all
great democracies.
The extent of
the
rapid
growth
of
population,
and the
open
their
the
the old
States of
Britain, which, in
American
Great Britain
is
the
first
mother-country
This,
relegated
it
the
is
second
the
rank.
disguise
as
they
may,
leading
passion in
American hearts
and
indivisible."
It
was more
to
indulge
this
we think has
for
any
the
immoral
that
and
cruel
system
State
which enslaved
the
real
him,
they ignored
of
Eights
corner-stone
their
it
know and
confess
and ultimately conquered the South, by dint of The question of superior wealth and numbers.
424
negro slavery
that
may
clusions.
The material
and
Oregon on the one side of the continent, and of Massachusetts and New Hampshire on the other,
are not the material
interests
of
Louisiana and
the Carolinas
tariff,
of a high prohibitive
for
may
minent under the guiding hand of Mr Calhoun in South Carolina in 1832, and as are still imminent
between the manufacturing and the agricultural
interests in the
And
two great sections of the Union. should civil strife arise on this question, or
of
any other
equal
again threatened
brother.
It has
become proverbial
to assert, as
"
we have
is
war
game
425
that the
But ancient and modern history alike teach us game is one which unbridled democracies,
passions are stirred or the lust of dominion
when their
large pro-
and
has
its
expressed,
West India
The greed
of
amount
pabulum in the creation of new States in the vast and as yet thinly-peopled territories that stretch
between the western slopes of the Eocky Mountains and the Pacific Ocean is gratified but not satiated.
When
and
these
embryo commonwealths
are digested
be in a few years,
426
with
to
weak and
unoffending
Mexico, with
The absorption
of
Mexico
is
any European complications that would render difficult or impossible the aggression of the American
Union.
of
Cuba
is
far different,
and
may
An
upon
this
island,
in
addition
to
its
North
its
plea of
of a
new
institution.
Cuba,
while
it
remains
Spanish
colony,
may
support slavery
but as a conquered
State, finally
annexed
to the
doom
nounced
by the
President
for
the
The
subject has
demands
it,
action,
and that
if
will
most certainly
receive
sooner or later
generation, in the
next
427
compared with the growing lust of dominion, and the tendency to the concentration of
significance
political
power
at
governments.
disease
This
the
latent
and
inherent
in
the
system,
which,
unchecked,
must
how
to
restrain
itself,
and
will
seek
restrainer.
all
countries
doom
its
of
an unbridled Democracy.
in
Such must be
doom
America, unless
its
by the
prove to
era has
bitter experience
of
the
past,
and shape
as to
manner
men
new hemiold.
But
dream
off,
will not
observers in
other
by the prudent
from licence and
;
restraint
that, if it
428
innocuous,
by denying
it
political
the wise
and the
foolish belong.
INDEX.
"
A Summary
African slave-trade, aversion to, by north and east States, 169. Alien and Sedition laws passed, 185.
growing
number
of
States,
story by Franklin, 308. Andre, Major, hanged as a spy, 100. Army, standing, dislike to, in America,
185.
Amusing
charged with murder, 148 appointed member of General Conseconds the resolution gress, 149 declaring their independence, 150 ungenerous treatment of Jefferson, 151 his defence of the Declaration of Independence, 154 et seq.; his unpopularity in the South, 156 appointed commissioner to Paris, 157 minister plenipotentiary to Great Britain, ib.; financial agent at the Hague, 158 appointed minister at St James's, 160; his opinion of the Court, 161 his irrepressible
; ; ;
;
Barre, Colonel Isaac, denounces the Stamp Duties in the House of Com-
mons,
33.
Boston citizens forbid the landing of the tea, 51 they board the ships and throw the tea into the harbour, 52 ; the "Boston Port Bill," 53; city
;
vanity, 162 nominated Vice-President, 166 ; dismay at French Revolelected President, 171 ; ution, 168 his exultation, 172 inaugural address, 174 jealousy of Jefferson, 176 ; and plan to get rid of him, 177 ; grand ideas of his position, 178 et
;
evacuated by the British, 81; the "massacre," 147. Botetourt, Lord, Governor of Virginia, 46; dissolves House of Burgesses.
221.
at,
British
16.
seq. ; contrasted with Washington, 181 ; his speech against the French Directory, 184 predicts a corrupt government of the future, 191 ; nominated a second time as President, 196; cause of his defeat, ib.; his uncourteous conduct to Jefferson, 199 ; his private life, 200 ; singular coincidence at his death, 204. Adams, Mrs, her account of the official
;
Bunker's Hill, battle of, 72. Burgoyne, General, capitulates to General Gates, 94.
Vice-
residence, 194.
for Presi-
Calhoun, John C., Vice-President under General Jackson, 365 ; his opposition to Protection, 367 General Jackson's threats against, 373. Canada, desire of United States to an;
Carlisle,
his
commission
to
430
INDEX.
and R. R. Livingston, 84, 150, 151 ; defence of, by John Adams, 152 et
; almost entirely the production of Jefferson, 238 ; trivial alterations by Adams and Franklin, ib. Democratic form of government, 355 ; virtue and intelligence necessary in the people, 356 ; some of the evils of ultra-democracy, 402. ' Discourses on Davila,' by John
America, 97 ; his estimate of the British army, 98. Carleton, Sir Guy, proclaims cessation of hostilities, 105. Central Government, American dislike
to, 116.
seq.
by
Jeffer-
min
Franklin, 302.
Chesapeake and Shannon, engagement between the, 347. Civil War in America, the real motive
289, note ; its cost, 893 ; disadvantages under which the South fought, 895 ; immense, resources of the North, 396 high bounties paid, Kb.; peculation and robbery daring, 406 et seq. Clay, Henry, his objections to slavery, 195 ; introduces Bill for reduction of
of, Governor of Virginia, dissolves House of Burgesses, 225 ; carries off gunpowder from Williamsburg, 232, 825.
for the,
Confederacy, formation of, threatened, 339. Ellsworth, Oliver, nominated as President, 171 ; on right of secession, 188. Elocution, a Scotsman's objection to
Eastern
encouragement
70.
of, 299.
duties, 374.
Clinton, George, nomination of, as President, 171. Clinton, Sir Henry, fails to relieve Lord Corawallis, 103.
Colden, Lieutenant-Governor of
New
York,
37.
Colonies, their proposed representation at Westminster, 305. ' Common Sense,' by Thomas Paine, 237 ; effect of its publication, ib. Confederacy of Virginia and North
Stamp Act,
36.
Connecticut troops, panic among, at New York, 87. Convention of the Colony formed, 225.
Fanueil Hall, convention held in, 44. " Federal " party, the, 125. Federal Union formed, 62 ; enlistment of troops, &c., ordered, 63. Federalists or Northern party, 171. Fort Duquesne, failure of attack on, by Major Grant, 24 ; evacuated, and taken possession of by Washington, 25 named Fort Pitt, 26. Fort Sumter attacked by General Rip;
ley, 392.
Stamp
his
Yorktown, whole
Corrupt
Adams and
government
predicted
by
Jefferson, 191.
Criminals, leniency to, by popularly elected judges in America, 404. Cuba, American designs against, 364,
425.
France, waning of her power in America, 24; sends fleet to assist Washington's army, 98; combined naval and military armament despatched to America by, 99 army under Rochambeau joins Washington, 101 ; withdraws her forces, 105 ; declaration of war against Great Britain, 128 treaty of peace with Great Britain, 158 declines to receive Mr Pinckney as minister from United States, 184; sells Louisiana to Amer;
;
ica, 272.
De
Rhode
of Pennsylvania to England, 32 ; examined at Bar of the House, 40, 301 ; his humble origin, 293 his life as a printer, ZQietseq.; success of 'Poor Robin's Almanack,' 296; his style
;
Assembly,
ib.;
agent-general
INDEX.
in London for Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Maryland, and Georgia, 300 ; foreign degrees conferred upon
431
Greeley, Horace, his influence with anti-slavery party, 381; advocates separation of North and South, ib.
him, ib.; Chatham's estimation of, 302 two important letters from, 303 ; elected member of first Congress, 306; a sympathetic story by, 308 ; appointed envoy to France, 309 a treaty negotiated by, 310 ; his popularity in Paris, 312; appointed delegate to the Convention, 313 ; his religious views, 314 speech in Convention, 318 ; his death, 320 ; tributes of respect from France, ib.; eulogium of, by Mr Rives, 321. Franklin, William, takes the side of the British, 306; appointed Governor of New Jersey, ib. ; imprisoned for three years, 307. Free Trade, advanced views on, held
; ;
;
Hamilton,
Alexander,
125.
head of the
of,
"Federal" party,
Brown,
391.
by John
;
New
England States threaten to secede from the Union, 362. Hayne, Mr, Governor of South Carolina, 369 ; on State Rights, 370. Henry, Patrick, friendship with Jefferson, 212
ib. ;
est," 219
resolutions proposed
by
him,
ib. ;
in Virginian Legislature,
by
16.
Free-Traders
34, 219 ; proposes arming the_ colonists, 232 ; marches on William'sburg with militia, 233, 327; appointed Gov-
Gage, General, shut up in Boston, 70. Gates, General, a rival of Washington, 94 ; defeats General Burgoyne, ib. General Congress held at Philadelphia, 57 ; Lord Chatham's opinion of, 58 ; resolutions passed, 59 ; enlistment of troops ordered, 63 ; unanimously declare the Independence of the States, 82 ; Constitution adopted
by the French auxiliaries, 331. Hessian auxiliaries under Colonel Rahl 91. " His defeated," Highness proposed as the title of the President, 123 " His Excellency" adopted, ib. History of the Principal Republics in the World,' by John Adams, 164.
; '
71.
Hyperion
48.
and ratified, 115, 117. Genet (" Citizen Genet"), ambassador from French Republic, 130; commissions American privateers, ib. ;
recalled to France, 133. III. on the right of taxation, his change of opinion, 112. Gennantown, defeat of Washington at, 94 ; agreed on as seat of government,
is
Inaugural address of John Adams, 174. See Independence, Declaration of. Declaration of Independence. " Independence," first cry of, in America, 44.
George
49
;
Jackson,
his
192.
Gerry, Mr, Adams's letter to, 179 ; his opposition to the Constitution, 319. " Gift of the gab," a Scotsman's objection to, 299.
Giles, Mr, Virginia, 138.
General,
defeats
;
General
Grange, a British ship, captured by Genet's privateers, 131. Grant, General, as President, 345. Grant, Major, failure of his attack npon Fort Duquesne, 24. Granville Administration, Stamp-Duties
imposed by,
32.
Great Britain, abolition of negro slavery by, its effect in the Northern States,
376.
grossly illiterate Presidents, ib. ; attacks State Democracies, 362 ; his hatred of Britain, 363 ; and of Calhoun, 365 ; his threats against him, 375 ; a pernicious doctrine 373, broached by, 384. Jay, John, nomination as President,171. JEFFERSON, THOMAS, nominated for President, 171 ; elected Vice-President, 172 ; his broad views of Republicanism, 208; early life, 210; friendship with Patrick Henry, 212; life at school and college, 213 study of languages, &c., 215 ; as a law student, 216 success at the bar, 218 ; his unfitness for public speaking,
; ;
43:
220
;
INDEX.
elected
"
member
of Virginian
;
MADISON, JAMES,
to,
letter
;
from Jefferson
his
house
222
"We
172;
State
;
President, 323 ton College, 324 ; first political step, 328 ; a delegate to the Virginian Convention, ib. ; elected to Virginian Council of State, 330 ; elected member of Congress, 331 ; letter on the state of the Army, 333 ; proposes a day of thanksgiving for conclusion of the war, 336; retires to private life, 337 ; again elected to Congress, 338 ; his views on Federal union, 343 ; succeeds Mr Jefferson in the Presidency, 346; elected a second time,
ib. ;
retires to his estate at Montpelier, 350; his pleasant society, 351; his death, 352.
Main, Colonel, of Virginia, defence of Southern States by, 166. Marsh, Mr, of Braintree, instructor of John Adams, Daniel Webster, and Josiah Quincy of Boston, 145. Mason, Colonel, his opposition to the
Constitution, 319. Mr George, his "Articles of Association, "47; his original draught of the Declaration, 329. Massachusetts first objects to taxes, 32 proposes General Congress of all the colonies, 44; insurrection in, 114; rebellion in, led by Captain Shay, 339 ; attacks the arsenal at Springfield, and is repulsed, 341 ; letter
Mason,
Kames, Lord,
letter
from Franklin
to,
on the right of levying taxes, 303. Kentucky, resolutions affirming separate rights of the States passed, 186.
342.
Knox, General, Secretary at War, 114 ; letter from John Adams to, 179. Kosciusko, letter from Jefferson to, on
his domestic
life,
on slavery,
140.
Mexico,
war
387.
wantonly
provoked
279.
"Missouri Compromise," unwise abroLafayette, General, letter from Washington to, 118; a political dinnerparty, 265. Lee, General, accuses Washington of indecision, 90 ; letter from Washing-
gation
of,
Morgan, G. D., agent for purchasing vessels for Federal Government, 407; report on his management, 408 et
seq.
ton
to, 118.
Mount Vernon,
ington, 27
;
Lincoln, Abraham, as President, 345'; on the thirst for the " spoils," 385, note; how his election was successful, 389.
"
Long Island and Staten Island taken possession of by the British, 81. Lords, House of, its indignation at
Boston Convention, 45. Louisiana purchased from French, 272.
National Bank established, 125. Negotiations for peace commenced, 105 ; and concluded, ib.
INDEX.
Negroes, their increase in the Southern States, 420 ; a danger to the American Union, ib. Neutrality, proclamation of,
ica, 129.
433
by Amer-
New England
New
under General Packenham at, 349. North and South, jealousy between,
164, 170, 190.
W. C. his eulogium on Ben' jamin Franklin, 321 ; his The Life and Times of James Madison,' 332. Rochambeau, French army under, joins Washington, 101. Rutledge, Mr, South Carolina, 60.
Rives,
,
North, Lord, repeals all import duties in America except on tea, 48 ; receives news of surrender at Yorktown, 104 ; tries to conciliate the
'
why they
objected to
Jeffer-
Secession, the right of, declared by Virginia and Kentucky, 186; Mr Ellsworth's views on, 188. Sedition and Alien Laws passed, 185. Segur, Count de, on the American envoys to France, 310. Seward, W. H., considers separation of North and South inevitable, 380 ; change in his opinions, 395 ; his "ninety days" prediction, ib.
Shannon and Chesapeake, engagement between the, 347. Sherman, Mr Roger, member of Genby Jefferson, 245. Slavery, Washington's opinion of, 140 ; abolition of, proposed by Jefferson, 229, 242 et seq.; Jefferson's advanced views on, 291; "did not pay" in the North, 376; gradually abolished in Northern States, 377. Small, Dr, his influence on Jefferson.
215.
Penn, William, his heirs claim exemption from taxes, 299; opposed by
Franklin, 300.
Pennsylvania sends Franklin to England as agent of the colony, 32. Pinckney, Thomas, nominated for Vice-President, 171 ; appointed Minister to France, 183; Directory decline to receive him, 184. Pitt, Mr, opposes the Stamp Act in
Nullifi-
House of Commons,
39.
'Political
Putrefaction Portrayed,' a
Report, 406.
Southern Confederacy debated, 372; and medal struck, ib. Southern States opposed to Protection,
366.
President's
title,
"His Highness"
cost,
or
414;
riots occasioned by, 37. Starbuck, agent for Federal Government, 406 ; his percentages, 407. State Democracies in danger, 362.
Stamp Act,
for, 416 ; a constantly recurring danger, 422. commissions granted for, by Privateers,
"States"
first
used in American
his-
tory, 228.
Strict neutrality, difficulties of, 182. Surplus revenue, dangers from, 365.
Summary View
of," 227.
Taylor, John, of Virginia, letter to, on Northern aggression, 189. Tea ships, New York and Philadelphia refuse to receive them, 50 boarded in Boston harbour, and contents thrown into the sea, 52. "To the victors belong the spoils," the doctrine of General Jackson, 385.
;
434
INDEX.
almost dictatorial powers, 92; defeated at Brandywine and at Oermantown, 94 ; unsuccessful attempt against New York, 101 ; Cornwall!* surrenders to him, 103 ; his letter to the governors of the thirteen State*, 106 ; resigns his commission to Congress, 108; six years of domestic life, 110 ft *q. ; doubts of the Confederation, 113; his name brought forward as first President, 117 ; letters to his friends on the election, 118 ; unanimously elected niMsjsjt. 119; triumphal progress towards New York, 120 et </.; bts difficulties as a statesman, 124 ; charged with royal ambition, 127; his emphatic disclaimer, ib.; re-elected President, 128 ; issues proclamation of neutral" CitUen 129; irritation at ity, Genet," 130 et tg.; demands his recall, 133; difficulties with privateering, 134; close of his second term of office, 137 ; farewell to his countrymen, ib.; his death, 140;
ULTRA -DEMOCRACY,
"
353
et teq.
TBF.
DA so IKS
OK,
Underground Railway," 387. " Union r> party, the, 125. United Colonies declared independent, 82 independence of, formally acknowledged in 1783, 150; truops disbanded by, 835; growing liurt of dominion by, 427.
;
Vergennrfl,
regarding America, 30. Virginia Legislature passes resolution* against the taxation, 4'i; resolution declaratory of State Rights intro-
duced
in, 186.
Voting, power
right, 417.
of,
a pririltge, not a
Walpole,
Robert,
his
sagacious
his will frees his slaves, ib.; character, 141 ; letter on chusvtts rebellion, 348, Washington, Laurence, 3 ; his early life, 5; leaves for Barbadoea, 17; his death, 18.
Ward, General Artemns, 63. Warn M, James, Massachusetts, letter from Washington to, 112. Washington, Augustine, 3 ; his family
hfctory, 4.
Washington, seat of government changed to, 191 ; attacked by the British, 347 ; Americans set fire to their vessels and stores, 3,48^ panic
'
349; the Capitol and other public buildings burned down, ib. Webb, Nathan, singular letter from John Adams to, 144.
eral of militia, 16
Mm
Webster, Daniel, his oration at the death of President Adams, Ml; an Abolitionist, 382; his venality, "
883.
Curtis, 25; elected member of House of Burgesses of Virginia, 29; his " Articles of Association," 47 elected conunander-in-chief, 66; his opinthe army, 77; first real ion of triumph, 81; retreats from New
;
Whisky Rebellion."
the, 135.
Williamsburg, gunpowder carried off from, 232, 325. Winthrop, Mr, letter from Franklin to,
303.
York, 86 ; a disgraceful panic among his troops, 87 ; demands the enlistment of troops, 89 ; is invested with
bow
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