the treaty, refused to pass a vote of undiminished confidence in the president. If Virginia could thus turn away from the son to whom she had hitherto clung with all a mother's pride, the tone in other states may be conceived to have been even more expressive of disapprobation. But Virginia was strongly republican and strongly French, consequently strongly anti-British. So far did the legislature go in its wrath, as to propose an amendment of the Constitution, to the effect of requiring the assent of the House of Representatives before a treaty could be ratified, (November.) The example of Virginia was imitated even in Congress, where the phrase of "undiminished confidence was stricken from an address of the house to the president, (December.) As the session progressed, a fierce struggle arose with respect to the bills for carrying out the British treaty. The opponents of the treaty made it their first effort to obtain the papers relating to the transaction, on the plea that it lay with the House to consent or to refuse to execute the provisions of the treaty. A three weeks' debate terminated in a call upon the president for the specified documents. He and his cabinet being alike of opinion that the House had transgressed its powers, the call was refused. The House took the denial with a better grace than might have been anticipated; the leaders of the opposition now throwing their whole weight upon the point of defeating the bills on which the execution of the treaty depended. Nor was it until after a fortnight's debate, in which Fisher Ames distinguished himself above all his colleagues in defending the treaty, that a vote, by a bare majority, determined that the House would proceed to its duty, (March, April, 1796.) By this time the frenzy out of doors had died away.

The point

Thus terminated the great event of Washington's gained. administration. Its course, so far as he was con

cerned, followed precisely the principles with which he had entered office. In face of the parties that divided the country, in face of their feelings and their relations to Great Britain and France, Washington saw but one alternative peace or war. And not peace or war with the stranger alone, but between citizen and citizen. Enough has been already said on the interests and the dangers involved in the decision. The proclamation of neutrality was the first decisive step, the treaty with Great Britain was the second, and, for the present, the last. The point thus gained may be called the starting point of the infant nation in its foreign relations. But hear Washington himself: "My ardent desire is, and my aim has been, to keep the United States free from political connections with every other country, to see them independent of all and under the influence of none. In a word, I want an American character, that the powers of Europe may be convinced we act for ourselves, and not for others. This, in my judgment, is the only way to be respected abroad and happy at home; and not, by becoming the partisans of Great Britain or France, create dissensions, disturb the public tranquillity, and destroy, perhaps forever, the cement which binds the Union.”

Continued

ments:

abroad.

Things were far, however, from going smoothly. embarrass- What Washington wrote a few months before was from still true: "This government, in relation to France and England, may be compared to a ship between the rocks of Scylla and Charybdis." The treaty being ratified, Charybdis was avoided. But Scylla rose the more frowningly. If the French party of the United States, if the minister of the United States to France, James Monroe, were indignant at the British treaty, it was but natural that France should be the same. The French government announced to Mr. Monroe that they considered their alliance with the United States to be at an end, (February,

1796.) The chief reason was the treaty with Great Britain; but the list of grievances, then and afterwards filled out, comprehended all the measures by which American neutrality had been sustained. To prove that they were in earnest, the authorities of France, in addition to their previous orders of capture and embargo, decreed that neutral vessels were to be treated exactly as they were treated by the British; that is, stopped, searched, and seized upon the seas, (July.) This was subsequently made known to the United States by a communication from the French envoy, Adet, (October,) who improved the opportunity by appealing to the people to take part with France and against Great Britain, (November.) To restore matters, as far as possible, to a better position, Washington had sent out Charles C. Pinckney as minister to France, in the place of Monroe, (September.) But the clouds that had been dissipated on the side of Great Britain were more than replaced by the ominous signs in the direction of France.

And at

It was still worse at home. The parties-northhome. ern and southern, federalist and republican, antiFrench and French that racked the nation were never so much agitated. "Until within the last year or two," wrote Washington, "I had no idea that parties would, or even could, go to the length I have been witness to." Congress was a continual battle ground. The federalist party, falling into the minority in the House, and in danger of losing their majority in the Senate, fought, it may be literally said, on one side; their opponents, the republicans, animated with the hope of the superiority, being equally pugnacious on the other. Newspapers, especially those published at Philadelphia, carried the hostile notes from Congress to the nation, and echoed them back to Congress. It is difficult, without having room for extracts, to convey

any idea of the virulence of political writing at the time Statesmanship disappears in partisanship, the love of country in the hatred of countrymen. All this, while it demonstrated the wisdom of the administration or of its head, rendered the course of the administration doubtful and imperilled. In fact, both the administration and its head were objects of the fiercest assault.

Abuse of

Washington wrote with natural indignation of Washing- the abuse which he, "no party man," as he truly ton. called himself, had received, "and that, too, in such exaggerated and indecent terms as could scarcely be applied to a Nero, a notorious defaulter, or even to a common pickpocket." It was amidst these outrages that Washington sent forth his Farewell Address to the people of the United States, (September 17, 1796.) Soon afterwards, Congress came together, and showed that many of its members were violent against the retiring president. On the proposal of an address of grateful acknowledgments from the House of Representatives, a man from Washington's own state, William B. Giles, of Virginia, took exception to the more expressive passages, saying, “If I stand alone in the opinion, I will declare that I am not convinced that the administration of the government for these six years has been wise and firm. I do not regret the president's retiring from office." Giles was not alone. The same attitude was taken by a considerable number, and amongst them Andrew Jackson, of Tennessee, (December.) "Although he is soon to become a private citizen," wrote Washington of himself, (January, 1797,) "his opinions are to be knocked down, and his character reduced as low as they are capable `of sinking it." Two months later, in the last hours of his administration, he said, "To the wearied traveller, who sees a resting place, and is bending his body to lean thereon, I now compare myself; but to be suffered to do this in peace,

is too much to be endured by some." If Washington could thus excite animosity and wrong, what must it have been with ordinary men? The country seemed unwilling to be pacified, unwilling to be saved.

Retire

ton.

Washington retired. He had done even greater ment of things at the head of the government than he had Washing done at the head of the army. But it was beyond his power to change the character of the nation. He left it as he found it divided and impassioned. Yet he left it as he had not found it with a Constitution in operation, with principles and with laws in action on the road to increase and to maturity. "I can never be

lieve,” were almost his last words as president, "that Providence, which has guided us so long, and through such a labyrinth, will withdraw its protection at this crisis." The day after writing this, he saw his successor, John Adams, inaugurated, (March 4, 1797.)

Lafayette.

One who had hailed the administration at its beginning was not amongst those to behold its close. Lafayette was a prisoner at Olmütz, under the power of Austria. But he was not forgotten. It is refreshing amidst the angry chaos of foreign controversies and of domestic struggles, to encounter Washington, not as the president, but as the American, writing his "private letter,” as he termed it, to the Emperor of Germany, "to recommend Lafayette to the mediation of humanity," and "to entreat that he may be permitted to come to this country," (May, 1796.) The effect of the appeal is not known; but Lafayette was liberated not long afterwards.

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