Life and Times of Washington Part 51

1. Footnote: The precise return was: For President George Washington, 132. For Vice-President--John Adams, 77; George Clinton, 50; Thomas Jefferson, 4; Aaron Burr, 1.

2. Footnote: Published in Arthur's "Home Gazette."

3. Footnote: John Quincy Adams on Washington's Proclamation of Neutrality.

4. Footnote: On the 8th of October John Hanc.o.c.k died at Boston.

5. Footnote: The whole number that died during the prevalence of the yellow fever in Philadelphia was over 4,000.

CHAPTER VII.

WASHINGTON SENDS JAY TO ENGLAND. 1793-1794.

The time appointed for the rea.s.sembling of Congress was the first Monday in December. Washington had arrived at Philadelphia, and the heads of departments were at their posts before the end of November.

Although the fear of contagion was not entirely dispelled when the time for the meeting of Congress arrived, yet, such was the active zeal of parties, and such the universal expectation that important executive communications would be made, and that legislative measures not less important would be founded on them, that both Houses were full on the first day, and a joint committee waited on the President with the usual information that they were ready to receive his communications.

On the 4th of December (1793), at 12, the President met both Houses in the Senate chamber. His speech was moderate, firm, dignified, and interesting. It commenced with his own re-election, his feelings at which were thus expressed:

"Since the commencement of the term for which I have been again called into office, no fit occasion has arisen for expressing to my fellow-citizens at large, the deep and respectful sense which I feel of the renewed testimony of public approbation. While, on the one hand, it awakened my grat.i.tude for all those instances of affectionate partiality with which I have been honored by my country, on the other, it could not prevent an earnest wish for that retirement, from which no private consideration could ever have torn me. But, influenced by the belief that my conduct would be estimated according to its real motives, and that the people, and the authorities derived from them, would support exertions having nothing personal for their object, I have obeyed the suffrage which commanded me to resume the executive power, and I humbly implore that Being on whose will the fate of nations depends, to crown with success our mutual endeavors for the general happiness." Pa.s.sing to those measures which had been adopted by the executive for the regulation of its conduct toward the belligerent nations, he observed: "As soon as the war in Europe had embraced those powers with whom the United States have the most extensive relations, there was reason to apprehend that our intercourse with them might be interrupted, and our disposition for peace drawn into question by suspicions too often entertained by belligerent nations. It seemed therefore to be my duty to admonish our citizens of the consequence of a contraband trade, and of hostile acts to any of the parties, and to obtain, by a declaration of the existing state of things, an easier admission of our rights to the immunities belonging to our situation. Under these impressions the proclamation which will be laid before you was issued.

"In this posture of affairs, both new and delicate, I resolved to adopt general rules which should conform to the treaties, and a.s.sert the privileges of the United States. These were reduced into a system which shall be communicated to you."

After suggesting those legislative provisions on this subject, the necessity of which had been pointed out by experience, he proceeded to say:

"I cannot recommend to your notice measures for the fulfillment of our duties to the rest of the world, without again pressing upon you the necessity of placing ourselves in a condition of complete defense, and of exacting from them the fulfillment of their duties toward us. The United States ought not to indulge a persuasion that, contrary to the order of human events, they will forever keep at a distance those painful appeals to arms with which the history of every nation abounds.

There is a rank due to the United States among nations which will be withheld, if not absolutely lost by the reputation of weakness. If we desire to avoid insult, we must be able to repel it: if we desire to secure peace--one of the most powerful instruments of our prosperity--it must be known that we are at all times ready for war."

These observations were followed by a recommendation to augment the supply of arms and ammunition in the magazines, and to improve the militia establishment.

After referring to a communication to be subsequently made for occurrences relative to the connection of the United States with Europe, which had, he said, become extremely interesting, and, after reviewing Indian affairs, he particularly addressed the House of Representatives.

Having presented to them in detail some subjects of which it was proper they should be informed, he added:

"No pecuniary consideration is more urgent than the regular redemption and discharge of the public debt; on none can delay be more injurious, or an economy of time more valuable.

"The productiveness of the public revenues. .h.i.therto has continued to be equal to the antic.i.p.ations which were formed of it; but it is not expected to prove commensurate with all the objects which have been suggested. Some auxiliary provisions will therefore, it is presumed, be requisite; and it is hoped that these may be made consistently with a due regard to the convenience of our citizens who cannot but be sensible of the true wisdom of encountering a small present addition to their contributions, to obviate a future acc.u.mulation of burdens."

The speech was concluded with the following impressive exhortation:

"The several subjects to which I have now referred, open a wide range to your deliberations and involve some of the choicest interests of our common country. Permit me to bring to your remembrance the magnitude of your task. Without an unprejudiced coolness, the welfare of the government may be hazarded; without harmony, as far as consists with freedom of sentiment, its dignity may be lost. But as the legislative proceedings of the United States will never, I trust, be reproached for the want of temper or of candor, so shall not the public happiness languish from the want of my strenuous and warmest cooperation."

The day succeeding that on which this speech was delivered, a special message was sent to both houses containing some of the promised communications relative to the connection of the United States with foreign powers.

After suggesting, as a motive for this communication, that it not only disclosed "matter of interesting inquiry to the Legislature," but "might indeed give rise to deliberations to which they alone were competent,"

the President added:

"The representative and executive bodies of France have manifested generally a friendly attachment to this country; have given advantages to our commerce and navigation; and have made overtures for placing these advantages on permanent ground. A decree, however, of the National a.s.sembly, subjecting vessels laden with provisions to be carried into their ports, and making enemy goods lawful prize in the vessel of a friend, contrary to our treaty, though revoked at one time as to the United States, has been since extended to their vessels also, as has been recently stated to us. Representations on the subject will be immediately given in charge to our minister there, and the result shall be communicated to the Legislature.

"It is with extreme concern I have to inform you that the person whom they have unfortunately appointed their minister plenipotentiary here, has breathed nothing of the friendly spirit of the nation which sent him. Their tendency, on the contrary, has been to involve us in a war abroad and discord and anarchy at home. So far as his acts, or those of his agents, have threatened an immediate commitment in the war, or flagrant insult to the authority of the laws, their effect has been counteracted by the ordinary cognizance of the laws and by an exertion of the powers confided to me. Where their danger was not imminent, they have been borne with, from sentiments of regard of his nation, from a sense of their friendship toward us, from a conviction that they would not suffer us to remain long exposed to the actions of a person who has so little respected our mutual dispositions, and, I will add, from a reliance on the firmness of my fellow-citizens in their principles of peace and order. In the meantime I have respected and pursued the stipulations of our treaties, according to what I judged their true sense, and have withheld no act of friendship which their affairs have called for from us, and which justice to others left us free to perform.

I have gone further. Rather than employ force for the rest.i.tution of certain vessels which I deemed the United States bound to restore, I thought it more advisable to satisfy the parties by avowing it to be my opinion that, if rest.i.tution were not made, it would be inc.u.mbent on the United States to make compensation."

The message next proceeded to state that inquiries had been inst.i.tuted respecting the vexations and spoliations committed on the commerce of the United States, the result of which, when received, would be communicated.

The order issued by the British government on the 8th of June (1793), and the measures taken by the executive of the United States in consequence thereof, were briefly noticed, and the discussions which had taken place in relation to the nonexecution of the treaty of peace, were also mentioned. The message was then concluded with a reference to the negotiations with Spain. "The public good," it was said, "requiring that the present state of these should be made known to the Legislature in confidence only, they would be the subject of a separate and subsequent communication."

This message was accompanied with copies of the correspondence between the Secretary of State and the French minister, on the points of difference which subsisted between the two governments, together with several doc.u.ments necessary for the establishment of particular facts, and with the letter written by Mr. Jefferson to Mr. Morris, which justified the conduct of the United States by arguments too clear to be misunderstood, and too strong ever to be controverted.

The extensive discussions which had taken place relative to the nonexecution of the treaty of peace, and the correspondence produced by the objectionable measures which had been adopted by the British government during the existing war, were also laid before the Legislature.

In a popular government the representatives of the people may generally be considered as a mirror, reflecting truly the pa.s.sions and feelings which govern their const.i.tuents. In the late elections, the strength of parties had been tried, and the opposition had derived so much aid from a.s.sociating the cause of France with its own principles, as to furnish much reason to suspect that, in one branch of the Legislature at least, it had become the majority. The first act of the House of Representatives served to strengthen this suspicion. By each party a candidate for the chair was brought forward, and Mr. Muhlenberg, who was supported by the opposition, was elected by a majority of ten votes, against Mr. Sedgewick, whom the Federalists supported.

The answer, however, to Washington's speech, bore no tinge of that malignant and furious spirit which had infused itself into the publications of the day. Breathing the same affectionate attachment to his person and character which had been professed in other times, and being approved by every part of the House, it indicated that the leaders, at least, still venerated their chief magistrate, and that no general intention as yet existed to involve him in the obloquy directed against his measures.

Noticing that unanimous suffrage by which he had been again called to his present station, "it was," they said, "with equal sincerity and prompt.i.tude they embraced the occasion for expressing to him their congratulations on so distinguished a testimony of public approbation, and their entire confidence in the purity and patriotism of the motives which had produced this obedience to the voice of his country. It is," proceeded the address, "to virtues which have commanded long and universal reverence, and services from which have flowed great and lasting benefits, that the tribute of praise may be paid without the reproach of flattery; and it is from the same sources that the fairest antic.i.p.ations may be derived in favor of the public happiness."

The proclamation of neutrality was approved in guarded terms, and the topics of the speech were noticed in a manner which indicated dispositions cordially to cooperate with the executive.

On the part of the Senate, also, the answer to the speech was unfeignedly affectionate. In warm terms they expressed the pleasure which the re-election of Washington gave them. "In the unanimity," they added, "which a second time marks this important national act, we trace with particular satisfaction, besides the distinguished tribute paid to the virtues and abilities which it recognizes, another proof of that discernment, and constancy of sentiments and views, which have hitherto characterized the citizens of the United States." Speaking of the proclamation, they declared it to be "a measure well timed and wise, manifesting a watchful solicitude for the welfare of the nation, and calculated to promote it."

In a few days a confidential message from Washington was delivered, communicating the critical situation of affairs with Spain. The negotiations attempted with that power in regard to the interesting objects of boundary, navigation, and commerce, had been exposed to much delay and embarra.s.sment, in consequence of the changes which the French revolution had effected in the political state of Europe. Meanwhile, the neighborhood of the Spanish colonies to the United States had given rise to various other subjects of discussion, one of which had a.s.sumed a very serious aspect.

Having the best reason to suppose that the hostility of the southern Indians was excited by the agents of Spain, Washington had directed the American commissioners at Madrid to make the proper representations on the subject and to propose that each nation should, with good faith, promote the peace of the other with their savage neighbors.

About the same time the Spanish government entertained, or affected to entertain, corresponding suspicions of like hostile excitements by the agents of the United States, to disturb their peace with the same nations. The representations which were induced by these real or affected suspicions were accompanied with pretensions and made in a style to which the American executive could not be inattentive. The King of Spain a.s.serted these claims as a patron and protector of those Indians. He a.s.sumed a right to mediate between them and the United States, and to interfere in the establishment of their boundaries. At length, in the very moment when those savages were committing daily inroads on the American frontier, at the instigation of Spain, as was believed, the representatives of that power, complaining of the aggressions of American citizens on the Indians, declared "that the continuation of the peace, good harmony, and perfect friendship of the two nations was very problematical for the future, unless the United States should take more convenient measures, and of greater energy than those adopted for a long time past."

Notwithstanding the zeal and enthusiasm with which the pretensions of the French republic, as a.s.serted by their minister Genet, continued to be supported out of doors, they found no open advocate in either branch of the Legislature. This circ.u.mstance is, in a great measure, to be ascribed to the temperate conduct of the executive, and to the convincing arguments with which its decisions were supported.

But when it is recollected that the odium which these decisions excited sustained no diminution; that the accusation of hostility to France and to liberty, which originated in them, was not retracted; that, when afterwards many of the controverted claims were renewed by France, her former advocates still adhered to her; it is not unreasonable to suppose that other considerations mingled themselves with the conviction which the correspondence laid before the Legislature was calculated to produce.

An attack on the administration could be placed on no ground more disadvantageous than on its controversy with Mr. Genet. The conduct and language of that minister were offensive to reflecting men of all parties. The President had himself taken so decisive a part in favor of the measures which had been adopted that they must be ascribed to him, not to his Cabinet, and, of consequence, the whole weight of his personal character must be directly encountered in an attempt to censure those measures. From this censure it would have been difficult to extricate the person who was contemplated by the party in opposition as its chief; for the Secretary of State had urged the arguments of the administration with a degree of ability and earnestness, which ought to have silenced the suspicion that he might not feel their force. [1]

The expression of a legislative opinion, in favor of the points insisted on by the French minister, would probably have involved the nation in a calamitous war, the whole responsibility for which would rest on them. To these considerations was added another, which could not be disregarded. The party in France, to which Mr. Genet owed his appointment, had lost its power, and his fall was the inevitable consequence of the fall of his patrons. That he would probably be recalled was known in America, and that his conduct had been disapproved by his government, was generally believed. The future system of the French republic, with regard to the United States, could not be foreseen, and it would be committing something to hazard not to wait its development.

These objections did not exist to an indulgence of the partialities and prejudices of the nation towards the belligerent powers in measures suggested by its resentment against Great Britain. But, independent of these considerations, it is scarcely possible to doubt that Congress really approved the conduct of the executive with regard to France, and was also convinced that a course of hostility had been pursued by Great Britain which the national interest and national honor required them to repel. In the irritable state of the public mind, it was not difficult to produce this opinion.

Early in the session a report was made by Mr. Jefferson, Secretary of State, in pursuance of a resolution of the House of Representatives, pa.s.sed on the 23d of February, 1791, requiring him "to report to Congress the nature and extent of the privileges and restrictions of the commercial intercourse of the United States with foreign nations, and the measures which he should think proper to be adopted for the improvement of the commerce and navigation of the same."

This report stated the exports of the United States in articles of their own produce and manufacture, at $19,587,055, and the imports at $19,823,060.

Of the exports, nearly one-half was carried to the kingdom of Great Britain and its dominions; of the imports, about four-fifths were brought from the same countries. The American shipping amounted to 277,519 tons, of which not quite one-sixth was employed in the trade with Great Britain and its dominions.

In all the nations of Europe, most of the articles produced in the United States were subject to heavy duties, and some of them were prohibited. In England, the trade of the United States was in general on as good a footing as the trade of other countries, and several articles were more favored than the same articles, the growth of other countries.