Missions

Chief amongst the combatants in Europe, and

to France. the aggressors against America, were Great Britain and France. For the moment, the relations with France occupied the foreground. Charles C. Pinckney, accredited by Washington to negotiate with the French government, was refused an audience at Paris; and not only that, but was ordered to depart the French territory, (December, 1796 February, 1797.) Notwithstanding this, notwithstanding the rapidly following decrees against American ships and American crews, President Adams sent out a new mission, consisting of Pinckney, John Marshall, and Elbridge Gerry, with moderate instructions, which, however, availed nothing. Pinckney and Marshall, incensed by the intrigue as well as the insolence of which they were the objects, (October, 1797-April, 1798,) shook off the dust of France from their feet, being followed in a few months by Gerry, who had undertaken to do alone what he had not been able to do with his colleagues.

Arming of the

States.

Before the withdrawal of Pinckney and Marshall, the intelligence of their treatment had thrown United the United States into a great excitement. The republicans taunted their opponents with the failure which they said they had predicted for the French missions. All the more bitter were the federalists, who inveighed against the venality of the French government, some even going so far as to call for a declaration of war. The president leaned to the side of his party. He had no mind to declare war, but he recommended Congress to put the country in a state of defence, (March, 1798.) The recommendation was at once opposed by the republican leaders. According to Vice President Jefferson, indeed, the president was aiming at a dissolution of the Union or at the establishment of a monarchical government. But the federalists upheld the president, and carried a series of measures pro

viding for the organization of a provisional army, as well as of a naval department, by which the existing navy might be more efficiently managed, (May.) Orders were issued, directing the national ships to seize all armed vessels engaged in hostile acts against American shipping; while merchantmen were authorized to arm themselves, and capture their assailants upon the seas. But to prevent hostilities, as far as possible, commercial intercourse with France and her colonies was formally prohibited, (June.) Soon after, Washington was appointed to the command of the provisional army, (July.) The United States were fairly

in arms.

War.

War followed at sea. No declaration was made; the most that was done being to proclaim the treaties with France void, and then to authorize the president to send out national and to commission private vessels for the purpose of capturing any armed ships of the French, whether participating or not in hostilities, (July.) The seas were at once overrun with American ships, by which the French privateers were taken or driven from the coast. No actual engagement between national vessels, however, ́occurred, until the beginning of the following year, when Commander Truxtun, in the Constellation, forced the French frigate L'Insurgente to strike, (February, 1799.) Hostilities were continued chiefly by privateers, the profits to whose owners were the principal results of the war. Still it pleased the party by whom it was favored. "A glorious and triumphant war it was!" exclaimed Adams, in after years. "The proud pavilion of France was humiliated."

Strain

nation.

But against the deeds of battle must be set the upon the measures of government. These alone show the strain upon the nation. To provide ways and means, stamp duties and taxes on houses and slaves were voted, besides the loans that were procured. To keep down party

opposition, alien and sedition acts, as they were called, were passed. The first authorized the president to banish all aliens suspected of conspiracy against the United States. This was more of a party manœuvre than appears on the face of it; inasmuch as many of the most ardent spirits of the republicans, especially the democratic republicans, were aliens. The sedition act denounced fine and im risonment upon all conspiracies, and even all publications, "with intent to excite any unlawful combination for opposing or resisting any law of the United States, or any lawful act of the president." Both these acts, however, were to be but temporary. * It was at midsummer that party spirit rose so high as to demand and to enact these urgent laws, (June July, 1798.) The alien act was never put in operation. But the sedition act was again and again enforced, and almost, if not altogether invariably, upon party grounds. It may safely be said that the nation was straining itself too far.

Nullifi- So thought the party opposing the administration cation. and the war. Strongest in the south and in the west, the republican leaders threw down the gauntlet to their opponents, nay, even to their rulers. The legislature of Kentucky, in resolutions drawn up for that body by no less a person than Vice President Jefferson, declared the alien and sedition laws "not law, but altogether void and of no force," (November, 1798.) The note thus sounded was taken up in the Virginia legislature, whose resolutions, draughted by James Madison, declared the obnoxious laws "palpable and alarming infractions of the Constitution," (December.) Both sets of resolutions, as they came from the hands of their framers, were stronger still. Jefferson

*The alien to be in force for two years, the sedition until March 4, 1801, the end of Adams's administration.

had written, "Where powers are assumed which have not been delegated, a nullification of the act is the right remedy, and every state has a natural right, in cases not within the compact, [the Constitution,] to nullify of their own authority all assumptions of power by others within their limits." Madison, after stating "that in case of a deliberate, palpable, and dangerous exercise of other powers not granted by the compact, the states, who are the parties thereto, have the right, and are in duty bound, to interpose for correcting the progress of the evil, and for maintaining within their respective limits the authorities, rights, and liberties appertaining to them," had made his resolutions declare the acts in question "null, void, and of no force or effect." But it was an early day for nullification; and neither Kentucky nor Virginia went the length prescribed for them. They went far enough, as has been seen, to excite very general opposition from their sister states, especially those of the centre and the north, where legislature after legislature came out with strong and denunciatory denials of the right of any state to sit in judgment upon the national government.

Another

Things were in this seething state, the factions on mission to both sides being at the height of their passions, France. when the president nominated a minister to France in the person of William Van Murray, to whom he afterwards joined Oliver Ellsworth, then chief justice, and William R. Davie, as colleagues, (February, 1799.) The reason assigned for a fresh attempt at negotiation was the assurance that had been received through Van Murray, then minister at the Hague, of the willingness of the French government to treat with a new mission. The instructions subsequently drawn up for the three envoys directed them to pursue a more decided course than had been enjoined upon their predecessors; they were to insist upon redress

for the decrees and the captures of the French; yet, unless received on their arrival at Paris, they were not to linger, but to demand their passports and abandon the mission. In all this, one finds it difficult to detect any thing unworthy of the nation. But the din upon the nomination of the embassy was tremendous. All the more active federalists, conspicuous amongst whom were the principal members of the cabinet, Timothy Pickering and Oliver Wolcott, cried out against the treachery of the president. It was treachery against their party rather than against their country, even in their own eyes; but they were blinded by the political animosity that dazzled and bewildered almost all around them. The president himself was suspected of urging the mission, in some degree, out of spite against the federal party, by whom, or by whose extreme members, he considered himself badly used. "The British faction," he wrote afterwards, was determined to have a war with France, and Alexander Hamilton at the head of the army, and then president of the United States. Peace with France was therefore treason." "This transaction," he exclaimed in relation to the appointment of a new mission, "must be transmitted to posterity as the most disinterested, prudent, and successful conduct in my whole life! "

Death of

66

At the close of the year—it was also the close Washing of the century which he adorned - Washington ton. died, (December 14, 1799.) His retirement, to which he had looked forward so longingly, had been disturbed. He had been greatly occupied with the organization of the provisional army, of which he had been appointed chief- the last of his many services to his country. He had been still more harassed by the party passions of the time; himself inclined to the support of federalist principles, he had been to some degree drawn into the whirl of political movements. Perhaps it was not too soon for his