The Greater Republic Part 18

The immediate effect of the paper was excellent. The various State Legislatures voted thanks to Washington, and were warm in their praises of his wise and patriotic services as President. The regret was universal that the country was so soon to lose his valuable counsel and guidance.

WEST POINT MILITARY ACADEMY ESTABLISHED.

During the Revolution Washington recommended the excellent location of West Point as the proper one for a military school of instruction. An act establishing the United States Military Academy at that place was pa.s.sed March 16, 1802. It provided that fifty students or cadets should be given instruction under the senior engineer or officer, a.s.sisted by the corps of engineers of the army. As the inst.i.tution grew, professorships of mathematics, engineering, philosophy, etc., were added, and the academy was made a military body subject to the rules and articles of war. A superintendent was designated in 1815, and the present system of appointing cadets was inst.i.tuted in 1843. The rigid course, steadily elevated, probably prevents fully one-half of those entering from graduating, and, a comparison of the West Point Military Academy with similar inst.i.tutions establishes the fact that it is the finest of the kind in the world.

PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1796.

The presidential election of 1796 was a close one, the result being: John Adams, Federalist, 71; Thomas Jefferson, Republican, 68; Thomas Pinckney, of South Carolina, Federalist, 59; Aaron Burr, of New York, Republican, 30; Samuel Adams, of Ma.s.sachusetts, Republican, 15; Oliver Ellsworth, of Connecticut, Independent, 11; George Clinton, of New York, Republican, 7; John Jay, of New York, Federalist, 5; James Iredell, of North Carolina, Federalist, 3; George Washington, of Virginia, John Henry, of Maryland, and S. Johnson, of North Carolina, all Federalists, 2 votes each; Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, of South Carolina, Federalist, 1 vote. Since it required 70 votes to elect, it will be seen that John Adams was barely successful, with Jefferson close to him.

John Adams, the second President, was born at Braintree, Ma.s.sachusetts, October 19, 1735. He graduated at Harvard, at the age of twenty, and was admitted to the bar three years later. He was one of the most active and influential members of the First and Second Continental Congresses. It was he who by his eloquent logic persuaded Congress to adopt the Declaration of Independence. Jefferson, his strenuous political opponent, declared that Adams was the pillar of its support and its ablest advocate and defender. It was Adams who suggested the appointment of General Washington as commander-in-chief of the Continental army.

During the progress of the war, he criticised the management of Washington, but, long before the death of the Father of his Country, candidly acknowledged the injustice of such criticism.

[Ill.u.s.tration: JOHN ADAMS.

(1735-1826.) One term, 1797-1801.]

The services of Adams were not confined to his early efforts in Congress nor to his term as President. He did important work as commissioner to France and Holland, and as minister plenipotentiary to negotiate a treaty of peace with Great Britain. He obtained large loans and induced leading European powers to make excellent treaties with his country.

Adams and Franklin framed the preliminary treaty of Versailles, and, as the first American minister to England, he served until 1788. He received the thanks of Congress for the "patriotism, perseverance, integrity, and diligence" displayed while representing his country abroad. When John Adams a.s.sumed the duties of the presidency, he found the country comparatively prosperous and well governed.

The South was the most prosperous. Until 1793, its princ.i.p.al productions were rice, indigo, tar, and tobacco. The soil and climate were highly favorable to the growth of cotton, but its culture was unprofitable, for its seeds were so closely interwoven in its texture that only by hard work could a slave clean five pounds a day. In the year named, Eli Whitney, a New England schoolteacher, living in Georgia, invented the cotton gin, with which a man can clean a thousand pounds of cotton a day. This rendered its cultivation highly profitable, gave an importance to the inst.i.tution of slavery, and, in its far-reaching effects, was the greatest invention ever made in this country.

TROUBLES WITH FRANCE.

The matter which chiefly occupied public attention during the administration of the elder Adams was our difficulties with France. That country had hardly emerged from the awful Reign of Terror in which a million of people were ma.s.sacred, and it was under the control of a set of b.l.o.o.d.y minded miscreants, who warred against mankind and believed they could compel the United States to pay a large sum of money for the privilege of being let alone. They turned our representatives out of the country, enacted laws aimed to destroy our commerce, and instructed their naval officers to capture and sell American vessels and cargoes.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE COTTON GIN, INVENTED IN 1793.

A machine which does the work of more than 1,000 men.]

President Adams, who abhorred war, sent special ministers to protest against the course of France. The impudent reply was there would be no stoppage until the men who controlled the French government were paid large sums of money. This exasperating notice brought the answer from Charles Cotesworth Pinckney which has become historical: "Millions for defense, but not one cent for tribute."

Although war was not declared, it prevailed on the ocean during the latter half of 1798. Congress convened, abolished the treaties with France, strengthened the navy, and ordered it to attack French vessels wherever found. Several engagements took place, in all of which the French men-of-war were whipped "to a standstill." The most important of the naval battles was between the _Const.i.tution_, under Commodore Truxton, and the French frigate _L'Insurgente_, in which the latter was captured. A messenger was sent to Mount Vernon, carrying the appointment of Washington as commander-in-chief of the American army. He found the great man in the harvest field; but when Washington donned his spectacles and read the paper, he replied that he was then as always ready to serve his country in whatever capacity he could. He accepted with the understanding that he was not to be called into the field until actual hostilities took place on the land, and that Alexander Hamilton should until then be the commander-in-chief.

Doubtless a destructive war would have resulted, but for the fact that Napoleon Bonaparte, as a stepping-stone to his marvelous career, overturned the French government and installed himself as emperor. He saw the folly of a war with the United States, when he was certain soon to be embroiled with more powerful neighbors near home. He offered fair terms of peace to our country in 1799, and they were accepted.

THE ALIEN AND SEDITION LAWS.

One of the gravest mistakes made by the Federalists in Congress was the pa.s.sage of the Alien and Sedition Laws. Irritated by the mischief-making of foreigners, a law was enacted which permitted the President to arrest any alien in the country whose presence he considered dangerous. The acts under which this was to be done were known as the Alien Laws. The most detested measure, however, was that which authorized the arrest of any person who should speak evil of the government, and was known as the Sedition Law. There were arrests and punishments under its provisions, and the majority of the people were bitterly hostile to it. It was unquestionably a direct invasion of the liberty of speech. The claim that no editor, public speaker, or private citizen should be allowed to condemn an action of the government which he disproved was unbearable, but it was in direct line with the Federal policy of a powerful central government, and as directly opposed to Republican principles. The feeling became so intense that at the next presidential election the Federal party was defeated and never afterward gained control of the government.

REMOVAL OF THE NATIONAL CAPITAL TO WASHINGTON.

The census of 1800 showed that the population of the country had increased to 5,308,483. In that year, the national capital was removed from Philadelphia to the straggling, partly built village of Washington, standing in the woods, and without any of the structures that have made it one of the most attractive cities in the world.

The presidential election of 1800 was an exciting one. Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr, both Republicans, received 73 electoral votes, while John Adams, Federalist had 65; Charles C. Pinckney, Federalist, 64; John Jay, Federalist 1. The vote between the leaders being a tie, the election was thrown into the House of Representatives, where, after thirty-eight ballots, Jefferson was elected, with Burr, the next highest candidate, Vice-President. The preceding election, as will be remembered, gave a President and Vice-President of different political parties, always an undesirable thing, and this fact, added to the difficulties of the election just over, led to the adoption in 1804 of the Twelfth Amendment to the Const.i.tution, which requires the electors to vote separately for the President and Vice-President.

THOMAS JEFFERSON.

Thomas Jefferson, third President of the United States, was born at Shadwell, Albemarle County, Virginia, April 2, 1743. His father, a wealthy planter, died when his son was fourteen years old, and he entered William and Mary College, where he was the most a.s.siduous student in the inst.i.tution. Jefferson was as fond as Washington of athletic sports, and, though he was of less ma.s.sive build, he attained the same stature, six feet two inches. In college, he was an awkward, freckle-faced, sandy haired youth, who, but for his superior mental attainments, would have commanded little respect. Except for his fondness for hunting and horseback riding, he never could have acquired the physique which allowed him to spend ten, twelve, and sixteen hours of every twenty-four in hard study.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THOMAS JEFFERSON.

(1743-1826.) Two terms, 1801-1809.]

Jefferson was undoubtedly the most learned of all our Presidents. He was not only a fine mathematician, but a master of Latin, Greek, French, Spanish, and Italian. He was an exquisite performer on the violin, and it was said of him, by one of the most noted European musicians, that he never heard an amateur play the king of instruments as well as the slim Virginian.

Jefferson married a wealthy lady and named his attractive home Monticello. His great ability caused his election to the Virginia Legislature while a young man, and he was soon afterward sent to Congress. Lacking the gifts of oratory, he had no superior as a writer of fine, cla.s.sical, forceful English. Among the many excellent laws he secured for Virginia was the separation of Church and State. He was the author of a parliamentary manual for the government of the United States Senate, which is still an authority, and of our present system of decimal currency; but the reader does not need to be reminded that his fame will go down to posterity chiefly as the writer of the Declaration of Independence; but Jefferson felt almost equally proud of the fact that he was founder of the University of Virginia, which, abandoning the old system, introduced the "free system of independent schools." He also proposed for his State a comprehensive system of free public schools.

Although wealthy, he went almost to the extreme of simplicity. His dress was as plain as that of the Quakers; he wore leathern shoestrings instead of the fashionable silver buckles; and strove to keep his birthday a secret, because some of his friends wished to celebrate it.

He was opposed to all pomp, ceremony, and t.i.tles. He is universally regarded as the founder of the Democracy of the present day, and was undeniably one of the greatest Presidents we have had.

WELCOME LEGISLATION.

The administration of Jefferson proved among the most important in the history of our country. Congress promptly abolished the tax on distilled spirits and a number of other manufactures, a step which enabled the President to dismiss a large number of revenue collectors, whose unwelcome duties had entailed considerable expense upon the country. The obnoxious Sedition Law was repealed, and the Alien Law so modified that it was shorn of its disagreeable features.

ADMISSION OF OHIO.

In the year 1800, a line was run through the Northwest Territory from the mouth of the Great Miami to Fort Recovery and thence to Canada.

Three years afterward, the territory thus defined was admitted to the Union as the State of Ohio. The Indiana Territory included the portion west of the line named, with Vincennes as the capital. The Mississippi Territory was organized so as to extend from the western boundaries of Georgia to the Mississippi.

The punishment administered to France in 1798 naturally gave that country a respect for the United States, and in 1802 our relations with her became quite friendly. Bonaparte, having established a truce with the nations around him, found time to give some attention to the American republic. He seemed to believe he could establish a French colonial empire, not only in the West Indies, but in the immense province of Louisiana. Had Bonaparte succeeded, he would have acquired control of the Mississippi and the Gulf of Mexico. Nothing would have pleased England more than to see so serious a check placed upon our growth, and nothing would have displeased our countrymen more than to be shut off from the Father of Waters and the right to emigrate westward.

They were ready to go to war before submitting to such deprivation.

PURCHASE OF LOUISIANA.

No one was more keenly alive to the situation than Jefferson. He carefully instructed our envoy at Paris to make the strongest possible representations to the French ruler of the grave mistake of the course he had in mind, which must inevitably result in an alliance with Great Britain in sweeping France from the seas and driving her from the West Indies. Bonaparte was too wise not to perceive that this was no empty threat, and that his visionary French empire in the West would prove an element of weakness rather than strength. Nothing was plainer than the truth that the stronger the United States became, the more dangerous would it be for his traditional enemy, England. He, therefore, proposed to sell Louisiana to the United States.

This was the very thing for which Jefferson had been skillfully working from the first. The bargain was speedily completed. On April 30, 1803, Louisiana came into our possession for the sum of $11,250,000, we agreeing at the same time to pay certain debts due from France to American citizens, amounting to $3,750,000, so that the total cost of Louisiana was $15,000,000.

It must not be forgotten that the Territory of Louisiana, as purchased by us, was vastly more extensive than is the present State of that name.

It included the area from which have been carved the States of Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Minnesota, Iowa, the Dakotas, Montana, part of Kansas, Wyoming and Colorado, and the Territory of Oklahoma, the whole area being 1,171,931 square miles, as against 827,844, which was all the territory occupied previous to 1803.

Peaceable possession was taken on the 20th of December following. The governorship of the Territory was offered to Lafayette, and declined by him, but he received a grant of 12,000 acres within its limits.

SLAVE TRADE ABOLISHED.

At the time of the adoption of the Const.i.tution, it was agreed that the slave trade should be permitted for twenty years. It was abolished, therefore, in 1808, and the penalty for engaging in it was made punishable with death. At the time of the purchase of Louisiana, it was believed that it included Texas, but the United States gave up this claim in 1819 to Spain in return for the cession of Florida.

It seems incredible, but it was true, that for twenty years we had been paying a large tribute to Algiers on condition that she would not molest our commerce. Other nations did the same, because it was more convenient than keeping a navy in those far-off waters. A treaty with Morocco had been signed, in 1787, under which we also paid her tribute. The people of the Barbary States naturally waxed insolent, and when we were slow in sending our tribute they imposed a heavy penalty, which we meekly paid.