The Life of John Marshall Volume II Part 63

Although it did not equal the extravagance of the Republican newspapers, the Federalist press was also violent. See, for instance, a satirical poem "by an Hibernian and an Alien" in the _Alexandria Advertiser_, reprinted in the _Washington Federalist_ of February 12, 1801, of which the last verse runs:--

"With J[effer]son, greatest of men, Our President next we will dash on.

Republican marriages then, And drowning boats will be in fashion.

Co-alitions, tri-color we'll form 'Twixt white Men, Mulattos, and Negroes.

The banks of the treasury we'll storm-- Oh! how we'll squeeze the old Quakers, _Philosophy is a fine thing_!"

The familiar campaign arguments were, of course, incessantly reiterated as: "The Government" cost only "FIVE MILLION dollars ... before the British treaty"; now it costs "FIFTEEN MILLIONS. Therefore every man who paid _one dollar_ taxes then pays _three_ dollars now." (_Aurora_, Oct.

30, 1800.)

[1232] Ames to Pickering, Nov. 5, 1799; _Works_: Ames, i, 264.

[1233] Ames to Dwight, March 19, 1801; _ib._, 294.

[1234] Webster to Wolcott, June 23, 1800; Gibbs, ii, 374.

[1235] The _Washington Federalist_, Jan. 12, 1801, charged that, in Virginia, public money was used at the election and that a resolution to inquire into its expenditures was defeated in the Legislature.

[1236] Charles Pinckney to Jefferson, Oct. 12, 1800; _Amer. Hist. Rev._, iv, 117. For election arguments and methods see McMaster, ii, 499 _et seq._

[1237] Adams to Marshall, Sept. 27, 1800; _Works_: Adams, ix, 85; and see Graydon, footnote to 362.

[1238] Adams to Marshall, Sept. 30, 1800; Adams MSS.

[1239] Marshall to Adams, without date; Adams MSS.

[1240] Adams MSS. Marshall wrote two speeches for Adams. Both are in Marshall's handwriting. The President selected and delivered the one which appears in Adams's _Works_ and in Richardson. The undelivered speech was the better, although it was written before the French treaty arrived, and was not applicable to the state of our relations with France when Congress convened. Marshall also wrote for Adams the two brief separate addresses to the Senate and the House. (_Ib._)

[1241] The original ma.n.u.scripts of these speeches, in Marshall's handwriting, are in the Adams MSS. They are notable only as an evidence of Adams's confidence in Marshall at this, the most irritating period of his life.

[1242] Beard: _Econ. O. J. D._, chap. xiii.

[1243] When it was certain that Adams had been defeated, "Solon," in the _Washington Federalist_ of Jan. 9, 1801, thus eulogized him:--

"The die is cast!... Our beloved ADAMS will now close his bright career.... Immortal sage! May thy counsels continue to be our saving Angel! Retire and receive ... the ... blessings of all _good_ men....

"Sons of faction [party]! demagogues and high priests of anarchy, now have you cause to triumph. Despots and tyrants! now may you safely p.r.o.nounce 'ingrat.i.tude is the common vice of all republics. Envy and neglect are the only reward of superior merit. Calumny, persecution and banishment are the laurels of the h.o.a.ry patriot.'...

"... We have to contend ... for national existence. Magistrates and rulers, be firm.... Our const.i.tution is our last fortress. Let us entrench it against every innovation. When this falls, our country is lost forever."

This editorial, as well as all political matter appearing in the _Washington Federalist_ during 1800-01, is important because of Marshall's reputed influence over that paper. (See _infra_, 541.)

At news of Jefferson's success the leading Federalist journal declared that some Republicans in Philadelphia "huzzaed until they were seized with lockjaw ... and three hundred are now drunk beyond hope of recovery. Gin and whiskey are said to have risen in price 50 per cent since nine o'clock this morning. The bells have been ringing, guns firing, dogs barking, cats meuling, children crying, and jacobins getting drunk, ever since the news of Mr. Jefferson's election arrived in this city." (_Gazette of the United States_, Feb. 19, 1801.)

[1244] At that time, the presidential electors did not vote for a Vice-President, but only for President. The person receiving the largest number of electoral votes became President and the one for whom the second largest number of votes were cast became Vice-President. When Jefferson and Burr each had seventy-three votes for President, the election was thrown into the House of Representatives.

Thus, although, in casting their ballots for electors, the people really voted for Jefferson for President and for Burr for Vice-President, the equal number of votes received by each created a situation where it was possible to defeat the will of the people. Indeed, as appears in the text, that result was almost accomplished. It was this const.i.tutional defect that led to the Twelfth Amendment which places the election of President and Vice-President on its present basis. (See "The Fifth Wheel in our Government"; Beveridge: _Century Magazine_, December, 1909.)

[1245] Jefferson to Burr, Dec. 15, 1800; _Works_: Ford, ix, 155.

[1246] "Jefferson & Burr have each 73 votes and ... the Democrats are in a sweat." (Uriah Tracy to McHenry, Dec. 30, 1800; Steiner, 483.)

[1247] Jefferson to Madison, Dec. 19, 1800; _Works_: Ford, ix, 158.

[1248] Jefferson to Breckenridge, Dec. 18, 1800; _ib._, 157.

[1249] Hamilton to Wolcott, Dec. 16, 1800; _Works_: Lodge, x, 392.

[1250] See these letters in _ib._, 392 _et seq._; and to Bayard, Jan.

16, 1801; _ib._, 412 (also in _Works_: Hamilton, vi, 419, but misplaced and misdated).

[1251] Hindman to McHenry, Jan. 17, 1801; Steiner, 489-90; and see Carroll to Hamilton, April 18, 1800; _Works_: Hamilton, vi, 434-35.

The _Washington Federalist_, even when the balloting was in progress, thus stimulated the members of its party in the House: "_Unworthy_ will he be and consecrate his name to infamy, who ... has. .h.i.therto opposed ... Mr. Jefferson ... and shall now meanly and inconsistently lend his aid to promote it [Jefferson's election].... Will they confer on Mr. Jefferson the Federal suffrage in reward for the calumnies he has indiscriminately cast upon the Federal character; or will they remunerate him ... for the very honorable epithets of _pander, to the wh.o.r.e of England, 'timid men, office hunters, monocrats, speculators and plunderers'_ which he has missed no opportunity to bestow upon them."

(_Washington Federalist_, Feb. 12, 1801.)

[1252] Hamilton to Wolcott, Dec. 17, 1800; _Works_: Lodge, x, 395.

[1253] Jefferson rightly attributed to Burr Republican success in the election. "He has certainly greatly merited of his country, & the Republicans in particular, to whose efforts his have given a chance of success." (Jefferson to Butler, Aug. 11, 1800; _Works_: Ford, ix, 138.)

[1254] Sedgwick to Hamilton, Jan. 10, 1800; _Works_: Hamilton, vi, 511-14; Cabot to Hamilton, Aug. 10, 1800; _ib._, 453 (also in Lodge: _Cabot_, 284); Hindman to McHenry, Jan. 17, 1801; Steiner, 489-90; Morris to Hamilton, Jan. 5, 1801; Morris, ii, 398; and same to same, Jan. 26, 1801; _ib._, 402 (also in _Works_: Hamilton, vi, 503); Carroll to McHenry, Nov. 4, 1800; Steiner, 473-76; Rutledge to Hamilton, Jan.

10, 1801; _Works_: Hamilton, vi, 510.

[1255] Bayard to Andrew Bayard, Jan. 26, 1801; _Bayard Papers_: Donnan, 121.

[1256] Bayard to Hamilton, March 8, 1801; _Works_: Hamilton, vi, 524.

[1257] Tracy to McHenry, Jan. 15, 1801; Steiner, 488-99; and see Bayard to Andrew Bayard, Jan. 26, 1801; _supra_.

[1258] Hamilton to Wolcott, Dec. 16, 1800; _Works_: Lodge, x, 392.

[1259] Wolcott to Hamilton, Dec. 25, 1800; _Works_: Hamilton, vi, 498.

[1260] See Chief Justice Ellsworth's statement of the conservative opinion of Jefferson. (Brown: _Ellsworth_, 324-25.)

[1261] Jefferson to Mazzei, April 24, 1796; _Works_: Ford, viii, 237-41.

The letter as published in America, although it had undergone three translations (from English into Italian, from Italian into French, and from French into English again), does not materially differ from Jefferson's original.

It greatly angered the Federalist leaders. Jefferson calls the Federalists "an Anglican, monarchical & aristocratical party." The Republicans had "the landed interests and men of talent"; the Federalists had "the Executive, the Judiciary," the office-holders and office-seekers--"all timid men who prefer the calm of despotism to the boisterous sea of liberty, British merchants & Americans trading on British capital, speculators & holders in the banks & public funds, a contrivance invented for the purposes of corruption," etc.

Jefferson thus refers to Washington: "It would give you a fever were I to name to you the apostates who have gone over to these heresies, men who were Samsons in the field & Solomons in the council, but who have had their heads shorn by the wh.o.r.e England." It was this insult to Washington which Marshall resented most bitterly.

Jefferson must have known that Mazzei would probably publish this letter. Writing at Paris, in 1788, of Mazzei's appointment by the French King as "intelligencer," Jefferson said: "The danger is that he will overact his part." (Jefferson to Madison, July 31, 1788; _Works_: Ford, v, 425.)

The Republicans frankly defended the Mazzei letter; both its facts and "predictions" were correct, said the _Aurora_, which found scarcely "a line in it which does not contain something to admire for elegance of expression, striking fact, and profound and accurate penetration."

(_Aurora_, May 26, 1800.)

[1262] Marshall to Hamilton, January 1, 1801; _Works_: Hamilton, vi, 501-03.

[1263] Following is a list of the annual salaries of different officers:--