Jefferson and His Colleagues Part 8

The dispatches of Rush seemed so important to President Monroe that he sent copies of them to Jefferson and Madison, with the query-which revealed his own att.i.tude-whether the moment had not arrived when the United States might safely depart from its traditional policy and meet the proposal of the British Government. If there was one principle which ran consistently through the devious foreign policy of Jefferson and Madison, it was that of political isolation from Europe. "Our first and fundamental maxim," Jefferson wrote in reply, harking back to the old formulas, "should be never to entangle ourselves in the broils of Europe, our second never to suffer Europe to intermeddle with Cis-Atlantic affairs." He then continued in this wise:

"America, North and South, has a set of interests distinct from those of Europe, and peculiarly her own. She should therefore have a system of her own, separate and apart from that of Europe. While the last is laboring to become the domicile of despotism, our endeavor should surely be, to make our hemisphere that of freedom. One nation, most of all, could disturb us in this pursuit; she now offers to lead, aid, and accompany us in it. By acceding to her proposition, we detach her from the band of despots, bring her mighty weight into the scale of free government and emanc.i.p.ate a continent at one stroke which might otherwise linger long in doubt and difficulty.... I am clearly of Mr. Canning's opinion, that it will prevent, instead of provoking war. With Great Britain withdrawn from their scale and shifted into that of our two continents, all Europe combined would not undertake such a war.... Nor is the occasion to be slighted which this proposition offers, of declaring our protest against the atrocious violations of the rights of nations, by the interference of any one in the internal affairs of another, so flagitiously begun by Buonaparte, and now continued by the equally lawless alliance, calling itself Holy."

Madison argued the case with more reserve but arrived at the same conclusion: "There ought not to be any backwardness therefore, I think, in meeting her [England] in the way she has proposed." The dispatches of Rush produced a very different effect, however, upon the Secretary of State, whose temperament fed upon suspicion and who now found plenty of food for thought both in what Rush said and in what he did not say. Obviously Canning was seeking a definite compact with the United States against the designs of the allies, not out of any altruistic motive but for selfish ends. Great Britain, Rush had written bluntly, had as little sympathy with popular rights as it had on the field of Lexington. It was bent on preventing France from making conquests, not on making South America free. Just so, Adams reasoned: Canning desires to secure from the United States a public pledge "ostensibly against the forcible interference of the Holy Alliance between Spain and South America; but really or especially against the acquisition to the United States themselves of any part of the Spanish-American possessions." By joining with Great Britain we would give her a "substantial and perhaps inconvenient pledge against ourselves, and really obtain nothing in return." He believed that it would be more candid and more dignified to decline Canning's overtures and to avow our principles explicitly to Russia and France. For his part he did not wish the United States "to come in as a c.o.c.k-boat in the wake of the British man-of-war!"

Thus Adams argued in the sessions of the Cabinet, quite ignorant of the correspondence which had pa.s.sed between the President and his mentors. Confident of his ability to handle the situation, he asked no more congenial task than to draft replies to Baron Tuyll and to Canning and instructions to the ministers at London, St. Petersburg, and Paris; but he impressed upon Monroe the necessity of making all these communications "part of a combined system of policy and adapted to each other." Not so easily, however, was the President detached from the influence of the two Virginia oracles. He took sharp exception to the letter which Adams drafted in reply to Baron Tuyll, saying that he desired to refrain from any expressions which would irritate the Czar; and thus turned what was to be an emphatic declaration of principles into what Adams called "the tamest of state papers."

The Secretary's draft of instructions to Rush had also to run the gauntlet of amendment by the President and his Cabinet; but it emerged substantially unaltered in content and purpose. Adams professed to find common ground with Great Britain, while pointing out with much subtlety that if she believed the recovery of the colonies by Spain was really hopeless, she was under moral obligation to recognize them as independent states and to favor only such an adjustment between them and the mother country as was consistent with the fact of independence. The United States was in perfect accord with the principles laid down by Mr. Canning: it desired none of the Spanish possessions for itself but it could not see with indifference any portion of them transferred to any other power. Nor could the United States see with indifference "any attempt by one or more powers of Europe to restore those new states to the crown of Spain, or to deprive them, in any manner whatever, of the freedom and independence which they have acquired." But, for accomplishing the purposes which the two governments had in common-and here the masterful Secretary of State had his own way-it was advisable THAT THEY SHOULD ACT SEPARATELY, each making such representations to the continental allies as circ.u.mstances dictated.

Further communications from Baron Tuyll gave Adams the opportunity, which he had once lost, of enunciating the principles underlying American policy. In a masterly paper dated November 27, 1823, he adverted to the declaration of the allied monarchs that they would never compound with revolution but would forcibly interpose to guarantee the tranquillity of civilized states. In such declarations "the President," wrote Adams, "wishes to perceive sentiments, the application of which is limited, and intended in their results to be limited to the affairs of Europe.... The United States of America, and their government, could not see with indifference, the forcible interposition of any European Power, other than Spain, either to restore the dominion of Spain over her emanc.i.p.ated Colonies in America, or to establish Monarchical Governments in those Countries, or to transfer any of the possessions heretofore or yet subject to Spain in the American Hemisphere, to any other European Power."

But so little had the President even yet grasped the wide sweep of the policy which his Secretary of State was framing that, when he read to the Cabinet a first draft of his annual message, he expressed his pointed disapprobation of the invasion of Spain by France and urged an acknowledgment of Greece as an independent nation. This declaration was, as Adams remarked, a call to arms against all Europe. And once again he urged the President to refrain from any utterance which might be construed as a pretext for retaliation by the allies. If they meant to provoke a quarrel with the United States, the administration must meet it and not invite it. "If they intend now to interpose by force, we shall have as much as we can do to prevent them," said he, "without going to bid them defiance in the heart of Europe." "The ground I wish to take," he continued, "is that of earnest remonstrance against the interference of the European powers by force with South America, but to disclaim all interference on our part with Europe; to make an American cause and adhere inflexibly to that." In the end Adams had his way and the President revised the paragraphs dealing with foreign affairs so as to make them conform to Adams's desires.

No one who reads the message which President Monroe sent to Congress on December 2, 1823, can fail to observe that the paragraphs which have an enduring significance as declarations of policy are antic.i.p.ated in the masterly state papers of the Secretary of State. Alluding to the differences with Russia in the Pacific Northwest, the President repeated the principle which Adams had stated to Baron Tuyll: "The occasion has been judged proper for a.s.serting, as a principle in which the rights and interests of the United States are involved, that the American continents, by the free and independent condition which they have a.s.sumed and maintain, are henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future colonization by any European powers." And the vital principle of abstention from European affairs and of adherence to a distinctly American system, for which Adams had contended so stubbornly, found memorable expression in the following paragraph:

"In the wars of the European powers in matters relating to themselves we have never taken any part, nor does it comport with our policy so to do. It is only when our rights are invaded or seriously menaced that we resent injuries or make preparations for our defense. With the movements in this hemisphere we are of necessity more immediately connected, and by causes which must be obvious to all enlightened and impartial observers. The political system of the allied powers is essentially different in this respect from that of America. This difference proceeds from that which exists in their respective Governments; and to the defense of our own, which has been achieved by the loss of so much blood and treasure, and matured by the wisdom of their most enlightened citizens, and under which we have enjoyed unexampled felicity, this whole nation is devoted. We owe it, therefore, to candor and to the amicable relations existing between the United States and those powers to declare that we should consider any attempt on their part to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety. With the existing colonies and dependencies of any European power we have not interfered and shall not interfere. But with the Governments who have declared their independence and maintained it, and whose independence we have, on great consideration and on just principles, acknowledged, we could not view any interposition for the purpose of oppressing them, or controlling in any other manner their destiny, by any European power in any other light than as the manifestation of an unfriendly disposition toward the United States."

Later generations have read strange meanings into Monroe's message, and have elevated into a "doctrine" those declarations of policy which had only an immediate application. With the interpretations and applications of a later day, this book has nothing to do. Suffice it to say that President Monroe and his advisers accomplished their purposes; and the evidence that they were successful is contained in a letter which Richard Rush wrote to the Secretary of State, on December 27, 1823:

"But the most decisive blow to all despotick interference with the new States is that which it has received in the President's Message at the opening of Congress. It was looked for here with extraordinary interest at this juncture, and I have heard that the British packet which left New York the beginning of this month was instructed to wait for it and bring it over with all speed.... On its publicity in London... the credit of all the Spanish American securities immediately rose, and the question of the final and complete safety of the new States from all European coercion, is now considered as at rest."

CHAPTER XV. THE END OF AN ERA

It was in the midst of the diplomatic contest for the Floridas that James Monroe was for the second time elected to the Presidency, with singularly little display of partisanship. This time all the electoral votes but one were cast for him. Of all the Presidents only George Washington has received a unanimous vote; and to Monroe, therefore, belongs the distinction of standing second to the Father of his Country in the vote of electors. The single vote which Monroe failed to get fell to his Secretary of State, John Quincy Adams. It is a circ.u.mstance of some interest that the father of the Secretary, old John Adams, so far forgot his Federalist antecedents that he served as Republican elector in Ma.s.sachusetts and cast his vote for James Monroe. Never since parties emerged in the second administration of Washington had such extraordinary unanimity prevailed.

Across this scene of political harmony, however, the Missouri controversy cast the specter-like shadow of slavery. For the moment, and often in after years, it seemed inevitable that parties would spring into new vigor following sectional lines. All patriots were genuinely alarmed. "This momentous question," wrote Jefferson, "like a fire bell in the night, awakened and filled me with terror. I considered it at once as the knell of the Union. It is hushed, indeed, for the moment. But this is a reprieve only, not a final sentence."

What Jefferson termed a reprieve was the settlement of the Missouri question by the compromise of 1820. To the demands of the South that Missouri should be admitted into the Union as a slave State, with the const.i.tution of her choice, the North yielded, on condition that the rest of the Louisiana Purchase north of 36 degrees 30' should be forever free. Henceforth slaveholders might enter Missouri and the rest of the old province of Louisiana below her southern boundary line, but beyond this line, into the greater Northwest, they might not take their human chattels. To this act of settlement President Monroe gave his a.s.sent, for he believed that further controversy would shake the Union to its very foundations. With the angry criminations and recriminations of North and South ringing in his ears, Jefferson had little faith in the permanency of such a settlement. "A geographical line," said he, "coinciding with a marked principle, moral and political, once conceived and held up to the angry pa.s.sions of men, will never be obliterated; and every new irritation will mark it deeper and deeper." And Madison, usually optimistic about the future of his beloved country, indulged only the gloomiest forebodings about slavery. Both the ex-Presidents took what comfort they could in projects of emanc.i.p.ation and deportation. Jefferson would have had slaveholders yield up slaves born after a certain date to the guardianship of the State, which would then provide for their removal to Santo Domingo at a proper age. Madison took heart at the prospect opened up by the Colonization Society which he trusted would eventually end "this dreadful calamity" of human slavery. Fortunately for their peace of mind, neither lived to see these frail hopes dashed to pieces.

Signs were not wanting that statesmen of the Virginia school were not to be leaders in the new era which was dawning. On several occasions both Madison and Monroe had shown themselves out of touch with the newer currents of national life. Their point of view was that of the epoch which began with the French Revolution and ended with the overthrow of Napoleon and the pacification of Europe. Inevitably foreign affairs had absorbed their best thought. To maintain national independence against foreign aggression had been their constant purpose, whether the menace came from Napoleon's designs upon Louisiana, or from British disregard of neutral rights, or from Spanish helplessness on the frontiers of her Empire. But now, with political and commercial independence a.s.sured, a new direction was imparted to national endeavor. America made a volte-face and turned to the setting sun.

During the second quarter of the nineteenth century every ounce of national vitality went into the conquest and settlement of the Mississippi Valley. Once more at peace with the world, Americans set themselves to the solution of the problems which grew out of this vast migration from the Atlantic seaboard to the interior. These were problems of territorial organization, of distribution of public lands, of inland trade, of highways and waterways, of revenue and appropriation problems that focused in the offices of the Secretaries of the Treasury and of War. And lurking behind all was the specter of slavery and sectionalism.

To impatient homeseekers who crossed the Alleghanies, it never occurred to question the competence of the Federal Government to meet all their wants. That the Government at Washington should construct and maintain highways, improve and facilitate the navigation of inland waterways, seemed a most reasonable expectation. What else was government for? But these proposed activities did not seem so obviously legitimate to Presidents of the Virginia Dynasty; not so readily could they waive const.i.tutional scruples. Madison felt impelled to veto a bill for constructing roads and ca.n.a.ls and improving waterways because he could find nowhere in the Const.i.tution any specific authority for the Federal Government to embark on a policy of internal improvements. His last message to Congress set forth his objections in detail and was designed to be his farewell address. He would rally his party once more around the good old Jeffersonian doctrines. Monroe felt similar doubts when he was presented with a bill to authorize the collection of tolls on the new c.u.mberland Road. In a veto message of prodigious length he, too, harked back to the original Republican principle of strict construction of the Const.i.tution. The leadership which the Virginians thus refused to take fell soon to men of more resolute character who would not let the dead hand of legalism stand between them and their hearts' desires.

It is one of the ironies of American history that the settlement of the Mississippi Valley and of the Gulf plains brought acute pecuniary distress to the three great Virginians who had bent all their energies to acquire these vast domains.. The lure of virgin soil drew men and women in ever increasing numbers from the seaboard States. Farms that had once sufficed were cast recklessly on the market to bring what they would, while their owners staked their claims on new soil at a dollar and a quarter an acre. Depreciation of land values necessarily followed in States like Virginia; and the three ex-Presidents soon found themselves landpoor. In common with other planters, they had invested their surplus capital in land, only to find themselves unable to market their crops in the trying days of the Embargo and NonIntercourse Acts. They had suffered heavy losses from the British blockade during the war, and they had not fully recovered from these reverses when the general fall of prices came in 1819. Believing that they were facing only a temporary condition, they met their difficulties by financial expedients which in the end could only add to their burdens.

A general reluctance to change their manner of life and to practice an intensive agriculture with diversified crops contributed, no doubt, to the general depression of planters in the Old Dominion. Jefferson at Monticello, Madison at Montpelier, and to a lesser extent Monroe at Oak Hill, maintained their old establishments and still dispensed a lavish Southern hospitality, which indeed they could hardly avoid. A former President is forever condemned to be a public character. All kept open house for their friends, and none could bring himself to close his door to strangers, even when curiosity was the sole motive for intrusion. Sorely it must have tried the soul of Mrs. Randolph to find accommodations at Monticello for fifty uninvited and unexpected guests. Mrs. Margaret Bayard Smith, who has left lively descriptions of life at Montpelier, was once one of twenty-three guests. When a friend commented on the circ.u.mstance that no less than nine strange horses were feeding in the stables at Montpelier, Madison remarked somewhat grimly that he was delighted with the society of the owners but could not confess to the same enthusiasm at the presence of their horses.

Both Jefferson and Madison were victims of the indiscretion of others. Madison was obliged to pay the debts of a son of Mrs. Madison by her first marriage and became so financially embarra.s.sed that he was forced to ask President Biddle of the Bank of the United States for a long loan of six thousand dollars-only to suffer the humiliation of a refusal. He had then to part with some of his lands at a great sacrifice, but he retained Montpelier and continued to reside there, though in reduced circ.u.mstances, until his death in 1836. At about the same time Jefferson received what he called his coup de grace. He had endorsed a note of twenty thousand dollars for Governor Wilson C. Nicholas and upon his becoming insolvent was held to the full amount of the note. His only a.s.sets were his lands which would bring only a fifth of their former price. To sell on these ruinous terms was to impoverish himself and his family. His distress was pathetic. In desperation he applied to the Legislature for permission to sell his property by lottery; but he was spared this last humiliation by the timely aid of friends, who started popular subscriptions to relieve his distress. Monroe was less fortunate, for he was obliged to sell Oak Hill and to leave Old Virginia forever. He died in New York City on the Fourth of July, 1831.

The latter years of Jefferson's life were cheered by the renewal of his old friendship with John Adams, now in retirement at Quincy. Full of pleasant reminiscence are the letters which pa.s.sed between them, and full too of allusions to the pa.s.sing show. Neither had lost all interest in politics, but both viewed events with the quiet contemplation of old men. Jefferson was absorbed to the end in his last great hobby, the university that was slowly taking bodily form four miles away across the valley from Monticello. When bodily infirmities would not permit him to ride so far, he would watch the workmen through a telescope mounted on one of the terraces. "Crippled wrists and fingers make writing slow and laborious," he wrote to Adams. "But while writing to you, I lose the sense of these things in the recollection of ancient times, when youth and health made happiness out of everything. I forget for a while the h.o.a.ry winter of age, when we can think of nothing but how to keep ourselves warm, and how to get rid of our heavy hours until the friendly hand of death shall rid us of all at once. Against this tedium vitae, however, I am fortunately mounted on a hobby, which, indeed, I should have better managed some thirty or forty years ago; but whose easy amble is still sufficient to give exercise and amus.e.m.e.nt to an octogenary rider. This is the establishment of a University." Alluding to certain published letters which revived old controversies, he begged his old friend not to allow his peace of mind to be shaken. "It would be strange indeed, if, at our years, we were to go back an age to hunt up imaginary or forgotten facts, to disturb the repose of affections so sweetening to the evening of our lives."

As the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence approached, Jefferson and Adams were besought to take part in the celebration which was to be held in Philadelphia. The infirmities of age rested too heavily upon them to permit their journeying so far; but they consecrated the day anew with their lives. At noon, on the Fourth of July, 1826, while the Liberty Bell was again sounding its old message to the people of Philadelphia, the soul of Thomas Jefferson pa.s.sed on; and a few hours later John Adams entered into rest, with the name of his old friend upon his lips.

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

GENERAL WORKS Five well-known historians have written comprehensive works on the period covered by the administrations of Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe: John B. McMaster has stressed the social and economic aspects in "A History of the People of the United States;" James Schouler has dwelt upon the political and const.i.tutional problems in his "History of the United States of America under the Const.i.tution;" Woodrow Wilson has written a "History of the American People" which indeed is less a history than a brilliant essay on history; Hermann von Holst has construed the "Const.i.tutional and Political History of the United States "in terms of the slavery controversy; and Edward Channing has brought forward his painstaking "History of the United States," touching many phases of national life, to the close of the second war with England. To these general histories should be added "The American Nation," edited by Albert Bushnell Hart, three volumes of which span the administrations of the three Virginians: E. Channing's "The Jeffersonian System" (1906); K. C. Babc.o.c.k's "The Rise of American Nationality" (1906); F. J. Turner's "Rise of the New West" (1906).

CHAPTER I

No historian can approach this epoch without doing homage to Henry Adams, whose "History of the United States," 9 vols. (1889-1891), is at once a literary performance of extraordinary merit and a treasure-house of information. Skillfully woven into the text is doc.u.mentary material from foreign archives which Adams, at great expense, had transcribed and translated. Intimate accounts of Washington and its society may be found in the following books: G. Gibbs, "Memoirs of the Administrations of Washington and John Adams", 2 vols. (1846); Mrs. Margaret Bayard Smith, "The First Forty Years of Washington Society" (1906); Anne H. Wharton, "Social Life in the Early Republic" (1902). "The Life of Thomas Jefferson," 3 vols. (1858), by Henry S. Randall is rich in authentic information about the life of the great Virginia statesman but it is marred by excessive hero-worship. Interesting side-lights on Jefferson and his entourage are shed by his granddaughter, Sarah N. Randolph, in a volume called "Domestic Life of Thomas Jefferson" (1871).

CHAPTER II

The problems of patronage that beset President Jefferson are set forth by Gaillard Hunt in "Office-seeking during Jefferson's Administration," in the "American Historical Review," vol. III, p. 271, and by Carl R. Fish in "The Civil Service and the Patronage" (1905). There is no better way to enter sympathetically into Jefferson's mental world than to read his correspondence. The best edition of his writings is that by Paul Leicester Ford. Henry Adams has collected the "Writings of Albert Gallatin," 3 vols. (1879), and has written an admirable "Life of Albert Gallatin" (1879). Gaillard Hunt has written a short "Life of James Madison" (1902), and has edited his "Writings," 9 vols. (1900-1910). The Federalist att.i.tude toward the Administration is reflected in the "Works of Fisher Ames," 2 vols. (1857). The intense hostility of New England Federalists appears also in such books as Theodore Dwight's "The Character of Thomas Jefferson, as exhibited in His Own Writings" (1839). Franklin B. Dexter has set forth the facts relating to Abraham Bishop, that arch-rebel against the standing order in Connecticut, in the "Proceedings" of the Ma.s.sachusetts Historical Society, March, 1906.

CHAPTER III

The larger histories of the American navy by Maclay, Spears, and Clark describe the war with Tripoli, but by far the best account is G. W. Allen's "Our Navy and the Barbary Corsairs" (1905), which may be supplemented by C. O. Paullin's "Commodore John Rodgers" (1910). T. Harris's "Life and Services of Commodore William Bainbridge" (1837) contains much interesting information about service in the Mediterranean and the career of this gallant commander. C. H. Lincoln has edited "The Hull-Eaton Correspondence during the Expedition against Tripoli 1804-5" for the Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society, vol. XXI (1911). The treaties and conventions with the Barbary States are contained in "Treaties, Conventions, International Acts, Protocols and Agreements between the United States of America and Other Powers," compiled by W. M. Malloy, 3 vols. (1910-1913).

CHAPTER IV

Even after the lapse of many years, Henry Adams's account of the purchase of Louisiana remains the best: Volumes I and II of his "History of the United States." J. A. Robertson in his "Louisiana under the Rule of Spain, France, and the United States," 1785-1807, 2 vols. (1911), has brought together a ma.s.s of doc.u.ments relating to the province and territory. Barbe-Marbois, "Histoire de la Louisiana et de la Cession" (1829), which is now accessible in translation, is the main source of information for the French side of the negotiations. Frederick J. Turner, in a series of articles contributed to the "American Historical Review" (vols. II, III, VII, VIII, X), has pointed out the significance of the diplomatic contest for the Mississippi Valley. Louis Pelzer has written on the "Economic Factors in the Acquisition of Louisiana" in the "Proceedings" of the Mississippi Valley Historical a.s.sociation, vol. VI (1913). There is no adequate biography of either Monroe or Livingston. T. L. Stoddard has written on "The French Revolution in San Domingo" (1914).

CHAPTER V

The vexed question of the boundaries of Louisiana is elucidated by Henry Adams in volumes II and III of his "History of the United States." Among the more recent studies should be mentioned the articles contributed by Isaac J. c.o.x to volumes VI and X of the "Quarterly" of the Texas State Historical a.s.sociation, and an article ent.i.tled "Was Texas Included in the Louisiana Purchase?" by John R. Ficklen in the "Publications" of the Southern History a.s.sociation, vol. V. In the first two chapters of his "History of the Western Boundary of the Louisiana Purchase" (1914), T. M. Marshall has given a resume of the boundary question. Jefferson brought together the information which he possessed in "An Examination into the boundaries of Louisiana," which was first published in 1803 and which has been reprinted by the American Philosophical Society in "Doc.u.ments relating to the Purchase and Exploration of Louisiana" (1904). I. J. c.o.x has made an important contribution by his book on "The Early Exploration of Louisiana" (1906). The const.i.tutional questions involved in the purchase and organization of Louisiana are reviewed at length by E. S. Brown in "The Const.i.tutional History of the Louisiana Purchase, 1803-1812" (1920).