BERKELEY

LIBRARY

UNWLKSiTY OF CALIFORNIA

£>tanlrar& ilibtat^ CUttion

AMERICAN STATESMEN

JOHN T. MORSE, JR.

IN THIRTY-TWO VOLUMES VOL. XIII.

THE JEFFERSONIAN DEMOCRACY ALBERT GALLATIN

STAN

HOUGHTC1I. MIFFLIN & CO.

American

ALBERT GALLATIN

BY

JOHN AUSTIN STEVENS

BOSTON AND NEW YORK HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY

Copyright, 1883 and 1898, BY HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO.

All rights reserved.

*~- GIFT

PEEFACE

EVEKY generation demands that history shall be rewritten. This is not alone because it requires that the work should be adapted to its own point of view, but because it is instinctively seeking those lines which connect the problems and lessons of the past with its own questions and circumstances. If it were not for the existence of lines of this kind, history might be entertaining, but would have little real value. The more numerous they are between the present and any earlier period, the more valuable is, for us, the history of that period. Such considerations establish an especial interest just at present in the life of Gallatin.

The Monroe Doctrine has recently been the pivot of American statesmanship. With that doctrine Mr. Gallatin had much to do, both as minister to France and envoy to Great Britain. Indeed, in 1818, some years before the declaration of that doctrine, when the Spanish colonies of South Amer ica were in revolt, he declared that the United States would not even aid France in a mediation. Later, in May, 1823, six months before the famous

M909525

vi PREFACE

message of President Monroe, Mr. Gallatin had al ready uttered its idea ; when about leaving Paris, on his return from the French mission, he said to Chateaubriand, the French minister of foreign affairs (May 13, 1823) : " The United States would undoubtedly preserve their neutrality, provided it were respected, and avoid any interference with the politics of Europe. ... On the other hand, they would not suffer others to interfere against the emancipation of America." With characteristic vanity Canning said that it was he himself who "called the new world into existence to redress the balance of the old." Yet precisely this had already for a long while been a cardinal point of the policy of the United States. So early as 1808, Jefferson, alluding to the disturbed condition of the Spanish colonies, said : " We consider their interest and ours as the same, and that the object of both must be to exclude all European influence in this hemisphere."

Matters of equal interest are involved in the study of Mr. Gallatin's actions and opinions in matters of finance. Every one knows that he ranks among the distinguished financiers of the world, and problems which he had to consider are still agitating the present generation. He was opposed alike to a national debt and to paper money. Had the metallic basis of the United

PREFACE vii

States been adequate, he would have accepted no other circulating medium, and would have con sented to the use of paper money only for purposes of exchange and remittance. In 1830 he urged the restriction of paper money to notes of one hun dred dollars each, which were to be issued by the government. Obviously these must be used chiefly for transmitting funds, and would be of little use for the daily transactions of the people. Yet even this concession was due to the fact that the United States was then a debtor country, and so late as 1839, as Mr. Gallatin said, " specie was a foreign product." For subsidiary money he favored silver coins at eighty-five per cent, of the dollar value, a sufficient alloy to hold them in the country. Silver was then the circulating medium of the world, the people's pocket money, and gold was the basis and the solvent of foreign exchanges.

Great interest attaches to the application of some other of Gallatin's financial principles to more mod ern problems; and a careful study of his papers may fairly enable us to form a few conclusions. It may be safely said that he would not have favored a national bank currency based on government bonds. This, however, would not have been be cause of any objection to the currency itself, but because the scheme would insure the continuance of a national debt. He was too practical, also, not

viii PREFACE

to see that the ultimate security is the faith of the government, and that no filtering of that responsi bility through private banks could do otherwise than injure it. Further, it is reasonably safe to say that he would favor the withdrawal both of national bank notes and of United States notes, the greenbacks so-called ; and that he would con sent to the use of paper only in the form of certifi cates directly representing the precious metals, gold and silver; also that he would limit the use of silver to its actual handling by the people in daily transactions. He would feel safe to disregard the fluctuations of the intrinsic value of silver, when used in this limited way as a subordinate currency, on the ground that the stamp of the United States was sufficient for conferring the needed value, when the obligation was only to maintain the parity, not of the silver, but of the coin, with gold. He understood that, in the case of a currency which is merely subordinate, parity arises from the guar anty of the government, and not from the quality of the coin ; and that only such excess of any subor dinate currency as is not needed for use in daily affairs can be presented for redemption. This principle, well understood by him, is recognized in European systems, wherein the minimum of circu lation is recognized as a maximum limit of un covered issues of paper. The circulation of silver,

PREFACE ix

or of certificates based upon it, comes within the same rule.

At the time of the publication of this volume objection was taken to the author's statement that, until the publication of Gallatin's writings, his fame as a statesman and political leader was a mere tradition. Yet in point of fact, not only is his name hardly mentioned by the early biogra phers of Jefferson, Madison, and J. Q. Adams, but even by the later writers in this very Series, his work, varied and important as it was, has been given but scant notice. The historians of the United States, and those who have made a spe cialty of the study of political parties, have been alike indifferent or derelict in their investigations to such a degree that it required months of original research in the annals of Congress to ascertain Gallatin's actual relations towards the Federalist party which he helped to overthrow, and towards the Republican party which he did so much to found, and of which he became the ablest cham pion, in Congress by debate, and in the cabinet by administration.

Invited by the publishers of the Statesmen Series to bring this study " up to date," the author has found no important changes to make in his work as he first prepared it. In the original investiga tion every source of information was carefully ex-

x PREFACE

plored, and no new sources have since then been discovered. Mr. Gallatin's writings, carefully pre served in originals and copies, and well arranged, supplied the details ; while the family traditions, with which the author was familiar, indicated the objects to be obtained. But so wide was the gen eral field of Mr. Gallatin's career, so varied were his interests in all that pertained to humanity, phi lanthropy, and science, and so extensive were his relations with the leaders of European and Amer ican thought and action, that the subject could only be treated on the broadest basis. With this apology this study of one of the most interesting characters of American life is again commended to the indulgence of the American people. NEWPORT, April, 1898.

CONTENTS

CHAP. PAGE

I. EARLY LIFE 1

II. PENNSYLVANIA LEGISLATURE .... 32

III. UNITED STATES SENATE 56

IV. THE WHISKEY INSURRECTION .... 67 V. MEMBER OP CONGRESS 97

VI. SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY .... 170

VII. IN THE CABINET 279

VIII. IN DIPLOMACY 301

IX. CANDIDATE FOR THE VICE-PRESIDENCY . . 355

X. SOCIETY — LITERATURE — SCIENCE . . . 361

INDEX . . 391

ILLUSTRATIONS

ALBERT GALLATIN Frontispiece

From the original painting by Gilbert Stuart, in the

possession of Frederic W. Stevens, Esq., New York, N. Y. Autograph from the Chamberlain collection, Boston

Public Library.

The vignette of "Friendship Hill," Mr. Gallatin's

home at New Geneva, Pa., is from a photograph. Page

ROBERT GOODLOE HARPER facing 98

From a painting by St. Me"min, in the possession of

Harper's granddaughter, Mrs. William C. Pennington,

Baltimore, Md.

Autograph from a MS. in the New York Public

Library, Lenox Building.

ALEXANDER J. DALLAS facing 236

From the original painting by Gilbert Stuart, in the

possession of Mrs. W. H. Emory, Washington, D. C. Autograph from the Chamberlain collection, Boston

Public Library.

JAMES A. BAYARD facing 312

From a painting by Wertmuller, owned by the late

Thomas F. Bayard, Wilmington, Del.

Autograph from the Chamberlain collection, Boston

Public Library.

ALBERT GALLATIN

CHAPTER I

EARLY LIFE

OF all European-born citizens who have risen to fame in the political service of the United States, Albert Gallatin is the most distinguished. His merit in legislation, administration, and diplomacy is generally recognized, and he is venerated by men of science on both continents. Not, however, until the publication of his writings was the extent of his influence upon the political life and growth of the country other than a vague tradition. In dependence and nationality were achieved by the Revolution, in which he bore a slight and unim portant part; his place in history is not, therefore, among the founders of the Republic, but foremost in the rank of those early American statesmen, to whom it fell to interpret and administer the organic laws which the founders declared and the people ratified in the Constitution of the United States. A study of his life shows that, from the time of the peace until his death, his influence, either by

2 ALBERT GALLATIN

direct action or indirect counsel, may be traced through the history of the country.

The son of Jean Gallatin and his wife, Sophie Albertine Rollaz, he was born in the city of Ge neva on January 29, 1761, and was baptized by the name of Abraham Alfonse Albert Gallatin. The name Abraham he received from his grand father, but it was early dropped, and he was al ways known by his matronymic Albert. The Gallatin family held great influence in the Swiss Republic, and from the organization of the State contributed numerous members to its magistracy; others adopted the military profession, and served after the manner of their country in the Swiss contingents of foreign armies. The immediate relatives of Albert Gallatin were concerned in trade. Abraham, his grandfather, and Jean, his father, were partners. The latter dying in 1765, his widow assumed his share in the business. She died in March, 1770, leaving two children, — Al bert, then nine years of age, and an invalid daugh ter who died a few years later. The loss to the orphan boy was lessened, if not compensated, by the care of a maiden lady — Mademoiselle Pictet — who had taken him into her charge at his fa ther's death. This lady, whose affection never failed him, was the intimate friend of his mother as well as a distant relative of his father. Young Gallatin remained in this kind care until January, 1773, when he was sent to a boarding-school, and in August, 1775, to the academy of Geneva, from

EARLY LIFE 3

which he was graduated in May, 1779. The ex penses of his education were in great part met by the trustees of the Bourse Gallatin, — a sum left in 1699 by a member of the family, of which the income was to be applied to its necessities. The course of study at the academy was confined to Latin and Greek. These were taught, to use the words of Mr. Gallatin, "Latin thoroughly, Greek much neglected." Fortunately his preliminary home training had been careful, and he left the academy the first in his class in mathematics, natu ral philosophy, and Latin translation. French, a language in general use at Geneva, was of course familiar to him. English he also studied. He is not credited with special proficiency in history, but his teacher in this branch was Muller, the dis tinguished historian, and the groundwork of his information was solid. No American statesman has shown more accurate knowledge of the facts of history, or a more profound insight into its philosophy, than Mr. Gallatin.

Education, however, is not confined to instruc tion, nor is the influence of an academy to be measured by the extent of its curriculum, or the proficiency of its students, but rather by its gen eral tone, moral and intellectual. The Calvinism of Geneva, narrow in its religious sense, was friendly to the spread of knowledge; and had this not been the case, the side influences of Roman Catholicism on the one hand, and the liberal spirit of the age on the other, would have tempered its exclusive tendency.

4 ALBERT GALLATIN

While the academy seems to have sent out few men of extraordinary eminence, its influence upon society was happy. Geneva was the resort of dis tinguished foreigners. Princes and nobles from Germany and the north of Europe, lords and gen tlemen from England, and numerous Americans went thither to finish their education. Of these Mr. Gallatin has left mention of Francis Kinloch and William Smith, who later represented South Carolina in the Congress of the United States; Smith was afterwards minister to Portugal; Colonel Laurens, son of the president of Congress, and special envoy to France during the war of the American Eevolution; the two Penns, proprietors of Pennsylvania; Franklin Bache, grandson of Dr. Franklin; and young Johannot, grandson of Dr. Cooper of Boston. Yet no one of these fol lowed the academic course. To use again the words of Mr. Gallatin, "It was the Geneva society which they cultivated, aided by private teachers in every branch, with whom Geneva was abun dantly supplied." "By that influence," he says, he was himself "surrounded, and derived more benefit from that source than from attendance on academical lectures." Considered in its broader sense, education is quite as much a matter of asso ciation as of scholarly acquirement. The influence of the companion is as strong and enduring as that of the master. Of this truth the career of young Gallatin is a notable example. During his academic course he formed ties of intimate friend

EARLY LIFE 5

ship with three of his associates. These were Henri Serre, Jean Badollet, and Etienne Dumont. This attachment was maintained unimpaired throughout their lives, notwithstanding the widely different stations which they subsequently filled. Serre and Badollet are only remembered from their connection with Gallatin. Dumont was of different mould. He was the friend of Mirabeau, the disciple and translator of Bentham, — a man of elegant acquirement, but, in the judgment of Gallatin, "without original genius." De Lolme was in the class above Gallatin. He had such facility in the acquisition of languages that he was able to write his famous work on the English Con stitution after the residence of a single year in England. Pictet, Gallatin 's relative, afterwards celebrated as a naturalist, excelled all his fellows in physical science.

During his last year at the academy Gallatin was engaged in the tuition of a nephew of Made moiselle Pictet, but the time soon arrived when he felt called upon to choose a career. His state was one of comparative dependence, and the small patrimony which he inherited would not pass to his control until he should reach his twenty -fifth year, — the period assigned for his majority. It would be hardly just to say that he was ambitious. Personal distinction was never an active motor in his life. Even his later honors, thick and fast though they fell, were rather thrust upon than sought by him. But his nature was proud and

6 ALBERT GALLATIN

sensitive, and he chafed under personal control. The age was restless. The spirit of philosophic inquiry, no longer confined within scholastic limits, was spreading far and wide. From the banks of the Neva to the shores of the Mediterranean, the people of Europe were uneasy and expectant. Men everywhere felt that the social system was threat ened with a cataclysm. What would emerge from the general deluge none could foresee. Certainly, the last remains of the old feudality would be en gulfed forever. Nowhere was this more thoroughly believed than at the home of Rousseau. Under the shadow of the Alps, every breeze from which was free, the Genevese philosopher had written his "Contrat social," and invited the rulers and the ruled to a reorganization of their relations to each other and to the world. But nowhere, also, was the conservative opposition to the new theories more intense than here.

The mind of young Gallatin was essentially philosophic. The studies in which he excelled in early life were in this direction, and at no time in his career did he display any emotional enthusiasm on subjects of general concern. But, on the other hand, he was unflinching in his adherence to ab stract principle. Though not carried away by the extravagance of Rousseau, he was thoroughly dis contented with the political state of Geneva. He was by early conviction a Democrat in the broadest sense of the term. Indeed, it would be difficult to find a more perfect example of what it was

EARLY LIFE 7

then the fashion to call a citoyen du monde. His family seem, on the contrary, to have been always conservative, and attached to the aristocratic and oligarchic system to which they had, for centuries, owed their position and advancement.

Abraham Gallatin, his grandfather, lived at Pregny on the northern shore of the lake, in close neighborhood to Ferney, the retreat of Voltaire. Susanne Vaudenet Gallatin, his grandmother, was a woman of the world, a lady of strong character, and the period was one when the influence of women was paramount in the affairs of men ; among her friends she counted Voltaire, with whom her husband and herself were on intimate relations, and Frederick, Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel, with whom she corresponded. So sincere was this lat ter attachment that the sovereign sent his portrait to her in 1776, an honor which, at her instance, Voltaire acknowledged in a verse characteristic of himself and of the time : —

" J'ai baise* ce portrait charmant, Je vous 1'avourai sans mystere, Mes filles en ont fait autant, Mais c'est un secret qu'il faut taire. Vous trouverez bon qu'une mere Vous parle un peu plus hardiment, Et -vous verrez qu'e'galement, En tous les temps vous savez plaire."

At Pregny young Gallatin was the constant guest of his nearest relatives on his father's side, and he was a frequent visitor at Ferney. Those whose fortune it has been to sit at the feet of Mr.

8 ALBERT GALLATIN

Gallatin himself, in the serene atmosphere of his study, after his retirement from active participa tion in public concerns, may well imagine the in fluence which the rays of the prismatic character of Voltaire must have had upon the philosophic and receptive mind of the young student.

There was and still is a solidarity in European families which can scarcely be said to have ever had a counterpart in those of England, and of which hardly a vestige remains in American social life. The fate of each member was a matter of interest to all, and the honor of the name was of common concern. Among the Gallatins, the grand mother, Madame Gallatin-Vaudenet, as she was called, appears to have been the controlling spirit. To her the profession of the youthful scion of the stock was a matter of family consequence, and she had already marked out his future course. The Gallatins, as has been already stated, had acquired honor in the military service of foreign princes. Her friend, the Landgrave of Hesse, was engaged in supporting the uncertain fortunes of the British army in America with a large military contingent, and she had only to ask to obtain for her grandson the high commission of lieutenant-colonel of one of the regiments of Hessian mercenaries. To the offer made to young Gallatin, and urged with due authority, he replied, that "he would never serve a tyrant; " a want of respect which was answered by a cuff on the ear. This incident determined his career. Whether it crystallized long-cherished

EARLY LIFE 9

fancies into sudden action, or whether it was of itself the initial cause of his resolve, is now mere matter of conjecture; probably the former. The three friends, Gallatin, Badollet, and Serre seem to have amused their leisure in planning an ideal existence in some wilderness. America offered a boundless field for the realization of such dreams, and the spice of adventure could be had for the seeking. Here was the forest primeval in its original grandeur. Here the Indian roamed un disputed master; not the tutored Huron of Vol taire's tale, but the savage of torch and tomahawk. The continent was as yet unexplored. In uncer tainty as to motives for man's action the French magistrate always searches for the woman, — "cher- chez la femme!" One single allusion in a letter written to Badollet, in 1783, shows that there was a woman in Gallatin's horoscope. Who she was, what her relation to him, or what influence she had upon his actions, nowhere appears. He only says that besides Mademoiselle Pictet there was one friend, "une amie," at Geneva, from whom a permanent separation would be hard.

Confiding his purpose to his friend Serre, Gal latin easily persuaded this ardent youth to join him in his venturesome journey, and on April 1, 1780, the two secretly left Geneva. It certainly was no burning desire to aid the Americans in their struggle for independence, such as had stirred the generous soul of Lafayette, that prompted this act. In later life he repeatedly disclaimed any

10 ALBERT GALLATIN

such motive. It was rather a longing for personal independence, for freedom from the trammels of a society in which he had little faith or interest. Nor were his political opinions at this time ma tured. He had a just pride in the Swiss Republic as a free State (Etat libre), and his personal bias was towards the "Negatif" party, as those were called who maintained the authority of the Upper Council (Petit Conseil) to reject the demands of the people. To this oligarchic party his family belonged. In a letter written three years later, he confesses that he was "Negatif " when he aban doned his home, and conveys the idea that his emigration was an experiment, a search for a sys tem of government in accordance with his abstract notions of natural justice and political right. To use his own words, he came to America to " drink in a love for independence in the freest country of the universe." But there was some method in this madness. The rash scheme of emigration had a practical side; land speculation and commerce were to be the foundation and support of the set tlement in the wilderness where they would realize their political Utopia.

From Geneva the young adventurers hurried to Nantes, on the coast of France, where Gallatin soon received letters from his family, who seem to have neglected nothing that could contribute to their comfort or advantage. Monsieur P. M. Gallatin, the guardian of Albert, a distant rela tive in an elder branch of the family, addressed

EARLY LIFE 11

him a letter which, in its moderation, dignity, and kindness, is a model of well-tempered severity and reproach. It expressed the pain Mademoiselle Pictet had felt at his unceremonious departure, and his own affliction at the ingratitude of one to whom he had never refused a request. Finally, as the trustee of his estate till his majority, the guardian assures the errant youth that he will aid him with pecuniary resources as far as possible, without infringing upon the capital, and within the sworn obligation of his trust. Letters of re commendation to distinguished Americans were also forwarded, and in these it is found, to the high credit of the family, that no distinction was made between the two young men, although Serre seems to have been considered as the originator of the bold move. The intervention of the Duke de la Kochefoucauld d'Enville was solicited, and a letter was obtained by him from Benjamin Frank lin — then American minister at the Court of Ver sailles — to his son-in-law, Eichard Bache. Lady Juliana Penn wrote in their behalf to John Penn at Philadelphia, and Mademoiselle Pictet to Colo nel Kinloch, member of the Continental Congress from South Carolina. Thus supported in their undertaking the youthful travelers sailed from L'Orient on May 27, in an American vessel, the Kattie, Captain Loring. Of the sum which Gal- latin, who supplied the capital for the expedition, brought from Geneva, one half had been expended in their land journey and the payment of the pas-

12 ALBERT GALLATIN

sages to Boston; one half, eighty louis d'or — the equivalent of four hundred silver dollars — re mained, part of which they invested in tea. Beach ing the American coast in a fog, or bad weather, they were landed at Cape Ann on July 14. From Gloucester they rode the next day to Boston on horseback, a distance of thirty miles. Here they put up at a French cafe, "The Sign of the Alli ance," in Fore Street, kept by one Tahon, and began to consider what step they should next take in the new world.

The prospects were not encouraging; the mili tary fortunes of the struggling nation were never at a lower ebb than during the summer which intervened between the disaster of Camden and the discovery of Arnold's treason. Washington's army lay at New Windsor in enforced inactivity; enlistments were few, and the currency was almost worthless. Such was the stagnation in trade, that the young strangers found it extremely difficult to dispose of their little venture in tea. Two months were passed at the cafe, in waiting for an oppor tunity to go to Philadelphia, where Congress was in session, and where they expected to find the influential persons to whom they were accredited; also letters from Geneva. But this journey was no easy matter. The usual routes of travel were interrupted. New York was the fortified head quarters of the British army, and the Middle States were only to be reached by a detour through the American lines above the Highlands and be hind the Jersey Hills.

EARLY LIFE 13

The homesick youths found little to amuse or interest them in Boston, and grew very weary of its monotonous life and Puritanic tone. They missed the public amusements to which they were accustomed in their own country, and complained of the superstitious observance of Sunday, when "singing, fiddling, card-playing and bowling were forbidden." Foreigners were not welcome guests in this town of prejudice. The sailors of the French fleet had already been the cause of one riot. Gallatin's letters show that this aversion was fully reciprocated by him.

The neighboring country had some points of interest. No Swiss ever saw a hill without an intense desire to get to its top. They soon felt the magnetic attraction of the Blue Hills of Mil ton, and, descrying from their summit the distant mountains north of Worcester, made a pedestrian excursion thither the following day. Mr. Gallatin was wont to relate with glee an incident of this trip, which Mr. John Kussell Bartlett repeats in his "Beminiscences."

" The tavern at which he stopped on his journey was kept by a man who partook in a considerable degree of the curiosity even now-a-days manifested by some land lords in the back parts of New England to know the whole history of their guests. Noticing Mr. Gallatin's French accent he said, ' Just from France, eh ! You are a Frenchman, I suppose.' ' No ! ' said Mr. Gal latin, * I am not from France.' * You can't be from England, I am sure ? ' ' No ! ' was the reply. ' From

14 ALBERT GALLATIN

Spain?' 'No!' ' From Germany ?' 'No!' 'Well, where on earth are you from then, or what are you ? ' eagerly asked the inquisitive landlord. 'I am a Swiss,' replied Mr. Gallatin. * Swiss, Swiss, Swiss ! ' exclaimed the landlord, in astonishment. ' Which of the ten tribes are the Swiss ? ' "

Nor was this an unnatural remark. At this time Mr. Gallatin did not speak English with facility, and indeed was never free from a foreign accent.

At the little cafe they met a Swiss woman, the wife of a Genevan, one De Lesdernier, who had been for thirty years established in Nova Scotia, but, becoming compromised in the attempt to revo lutionize the colony, was compelled to fly to New England, and had settled at Machias, on the north eastern extremity of the Maine frontier. Tempted by her account of this region, and perhaps making a virtue of necessity, Gallatin and Serre bartered their tea for rum, sugar, and tobacco, and, invest ing the remainder of their petty capital in similar merchandise, they embarked October 1, 1780, upon a small coasting vessel, which, after a long and somewhat perilous passage, reached the mouth of the Machias River on the 15th of the same month. Machias was then a little settlement five miles from the mouth of the stream of the same name. It consisted of about twenty houses and a small fortification, mounting seven guns and gar risoned by fifteen or twenty men. The young travelers were warmly received by the son of Les dernier, and made their home under his roof.

EARLY LIFE 15

This seems to have been one of the four or five log houses in a large clearing near the fort. Gal- latin attempted to settle a lot of land, and the meadow where he cut the hay with his own hands is still pointed out. This is Frost's meadow in Perry, not far from the site of the Indian village. A single cow was the beginning of a farm, but the main occupation of the young men was wood cutting. No record remains of the result of the merchandise venture. The trade of Machias was wholly in fish, lumber, and furs, which, there being no money, the settlers were ready enough to barter for West India goods. But the outlet for the product of the country was, in its unsettled condition, uncertain and precarious, and the young traders were no better off than before. One transaction only is remembered, the advance by Gallatin to the garrison of supplies to the value of four hundred dollars ; for this he took a draft on the state treasury of Massachusetts, which, there being no funds for its payment, he sold at one fourth of its face value.

The life, rude as it was, was not without its charms. Serre seems to have abandoned himself to its fascination without a regret. His descrip tive letters to Badollet read like the "Idylls of a Faun." Those of Gallatin, though more tempered in tone, reveal quiet content with the simple life and a thorough enjoyment of nature in its original wildness. In the summer they followed the tracks of the moose and deer through the primitive

16 ALBERT GALLATIN

forests, and explored the streams and lakes in the light birch canoe, with a woodsman or savage for their guide. In the winter they made long journeys over land and water on snowshoes or on skates, occasionally visiting the villages of the Indians, with whom the Lesderniers were on the best of terms, studying their habits and witnessing their feasts. Occasional expeditions of a differ ent nature gave zest and excitement to this rustic life. These occurred when alarms of English in vasion reached the settlement, and volunteers marched to the defence of the frontier. Twice Gallatin accompanied such parties to Passama- quoddy, and once, in November, 1780, was left for a time in command of a small earthwork and a temporary garrison of whites and Indians at that place. At Machias Gallatin made one acquaint ance which greatly interested him, that of La Perouse, the famous navigator. He was then in command of the Amazone frigate, one of the French squadron on the American coast, and had in convoy a fleet of fishing vessels on their way to the Newfoundland banks. Gallatin had an intense fondness for geography, and was delighted with La Perouse 's narrative of his visit to Hudson's Bay, and of his discovery there (at Fort Albany, which he captured) of the manuscript journal of Samuel Hearne, who some years before had made a voyage to the Arctic regions in search of a northwest passage. Gallatin and La Perouse met subsequently in Boston.

EARLY LIFE 17

The winter of 1780-81 was passed in the cabin of the Lesderniers. The excessive cold does not seem to have chilled Serre's enthusiasm. Like the faun of Hawthorne's mythical tale, he loved Nature in all her moods ; but Gallatin appears to have wearied of the confinement and of his uncon genial companions. The trading experiment was abandoned in the autumn, and with some expe rience, but a reduced purse, the friends returned in October to Boston, where Gallatin set to work to support himself by giving lessons in the French language. What success he met with at first is not known, though the visits of the French fleet and the presence of its officers may have awakened some interest in their language. However this may be, in December Gallatin wrote to his good friend, Mademoiselle Pictet, a frank account of his embarrassments. Before it reached her, she had already, with her wonted forethought, antici pated his difficulties by providing for a payment of money to him wherever he might be, and had also secured for him the interest of Dr. Samuel Cooper, whose grandson, young Johannot, was then at school in Geneva. Dr. Cooper was one of the most distinguished of the patriots in Boston, and no better influence could have been invoked than his. In July, 1782, by a formal vote of the President and Fellows of Harvard College, Mr. Gallatin was permitted to teach the French lan guage. About seventy of the students availed themselves of the privilege. Mr. Gallatin re-

18 ALBERT GALLATIN

ceived about three hundred dollars in compensa tion. In this occupation he remained at Cam bridge for about a year, at the expiration of which he took advantage of the close of the academic course to withdraw from his charge, receiving at his departure a certificate from the Faculty that he had acquitted himself in his department with great reputation.

The war was over, the army of the United States was disbanded, and the country was preparing for the new order which the peace would introduce into the habits and occupations of the people. The long-sought opportunity at last presented it self, and Mr. Gallatin at once embraced it. He left Boston without regret. He had done his duty faithfully, and secured the approbation and esteem of all with whom he had come in contact, but there is no evidence that he cared for or sought social relations either in the city or at the college. Journeying southward he passed through Provi dence, where he took sail for New York. Stop ping for an hour at Newport for dinner, he reached New York on July 21, 1783. The same day the frigate Mercury arrived from England with news of the signature of the definitive treaty of peace. He was delighted with the beauty of the country- seats above the city, the vast port with its abun dant shipping, and with the prospect of a theatrical entertainment. The British soldiers and sailors, who were still in possession, he found rude and in solent, but the returning refugees civil and honest

EARLY LIFE 19

people. At Boston Gallatin made the acquaint ance of a French gentleman, one Savary de Val- coulon, who had crossed the Atlantic to prosecute in person certain claims against the State of Vir ginia for advances made by his house in Lyons during the war. He accompanied Gallatin to New York, and together they traveled to Philadelphia; Savary, who spoke no English, gladly attaching to himself as his companion a young man of the ability and character of Gallatin.

At Philadelphia Gallatin was soon after joined by Serre, who had remained behind, engaged also in giving instruction. The meeting at Philadel phia seems to have been the occasion for the dis solution of a partnership in which Gallatin had placed his money, and Serre his enthusiasm and personal charm. A settlement was made; Serre giving his note to Grallatin for the sum of six hundred dollars, — one half of their joint expenses for three years, — an obligation which was repaid more than half a century later by his sister. Serre then joined a fellow-countryman and went to Ja maica, where he died in 1784. At Philadelphia Gallatin and Savary lodged in a house kept by one Mary Lynn. Pelatiah Webster, the political economist, who owned the house, was also a boarder. Later he said of his fellow-lodgers that " they were well-bred gentlemen who passed their time con versing in French." Gallatin, at the end of his iwsources, gladly acceded to Savary's request to accompany him to Richmond.

20 ALBERT GALLATIN

Whatever hesitation Gallatin may have enter tained as to his definitive expatriation was entirely set at rest by the news of strife between the rival factions in Geneva and the interposition of armed force by the neighboring governments. This in terference turned the scale against the liberal party. Mademoiselle Pictet was the only link which bound him to his family. For his ingrati tude to her he constantly reproached himself. He still styled himself a citizen of Geneva, but this was only as a matter of convenience and security to his correspondence. His determination to make America his home was now fixed. The lands on the banks of the Ohio were then considered the most fertile in America, — the best for farming purposes, the cultivation of grain, and the raising of cattle. The first settlement in this region was made by the Ohio Company, an association formed in Virginia and London, about the middle of the century, by Thomas Lee, together with Lawrence and Augustine, brothers of George Washington. The lands lay on the south side of the Ohio, between the Monongahela and Kanawha rivers. These lands were known as "Washington's bot tom lands." In this neighborhood Gallatin deter mined to purchase two or three thousand acres, and prepare for that ideal country home which had been the dream of his college days. Land here was worth from thirty cents to four dollars an acre. His first purchase was about one thou sand acres, for which he paid one hundred pounds,

EARLY LIFE 21

Virginia currency. Land speculation was the fever of the time. Savary was early affected by it, and before the new friends left Philadelphia for Rich mond he bought warrants for one hundred and twenty thousand acres in Virginia, in Monongalia County, between the Great and Little Kanawha rivers, and interested Gallatin to the extent of one quarter in the purchase. Soon after the com pletion of this transaction the sale of some small portions reimbursed them for three fourths of the original cost. This was the first time when, and Savary was the first person to whom, Gallatin was willing to incur a pecuniary obligation. Through out his life he had an aversion to debt; small or large, private or public. It was arranged that Gallatin's part of the purchase money was not to be paid until his majority, — January 29, 1786, — but in the meanwhile he was, in lieu of interest money, to give his services in personal superinten dence. Later Savary increased Gallatin's interest to one half. Soon after these plans were com pleted, Savary and Gallatin moved to Richmond, where they made their residence.

In February, 1784, Gallatin returned to Phila delphia, perfected the arrangements for his expe dition, and in March crossed the mountains, and, with his exploring party, passed down the Ohio River to Monongalia County in Virginia. The superior advantages of the country north of the Virginia line determined him to establish his head quarters there. He selected the farm of Thomas

22 ALBERT GALLATIN

Clare, at the junction of the Monongahela Kiver and George's Creek. This was in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, about four miles north of the Vir ginia line. Here he built a log hut, opened a country store, and remained till the close of the year. It was while thus engaged at George's Creek, in September of the year 1784, that Gal- latin first met General Washington, who was ex amining the country, in which he had large landed interests, to select a route for a road across the Alleghanies. The story of the interview was first made public by Mr. John Eussell Bartlett, who had it from the lips of Mr. Gallatin. The version of the late Hon. William Beach Lawrence, in a paper prepared for the New York Historical So ciety, differs slightly in immaterial points. Mr. Lawrence says : —

" Among the incidents connected with his (Mr. Gal- latin's) earliest explorations was an interview with Gen eral Washington, which he repeatedly recounted to me. He had previously observed that of all the inaccessible men he had ever seen, General Washington was the most so. And this remark he made late in life, after having been conversant with most of the sovereigns of Europe and their prime ministers. He said, in connec tion with his office, he had a cot-bed in the office of the surveyor of the district when Washington, who had lands in the neighborhood, and was desirous of effecting com munication between the rivers, came there. Mr. Gal- latin's bed was given up to him, — Gallatin lying on the floor, immediately below the table at which Wash-

EARLY LIFE 23

ington was writing. Washington was endeavoring to reduce to paper the calculations of the day. Gallatin, hearing the statement, came at once to the conclusion^ and, after waiting some time, he himself gave the an. swer, which drew from Washington such a look as h& never experienced before or since. On arriving by a slow process at his conclusion, Washington turned to Gallatin and said, * You are right, young man.' "

The points of difference between the two ac counts of this interview are of little importance. The look which Washington is said to have given Mr. Gallatin has its counterpart in that with which he is also said to have turned upon Gouver- neur Morris, when accosted by him familiarly with a touch on the shoulder. Bartlett, in his recollection of the anecdote, adds that Washing ton, about this period, inquired after the forward young man, and urged him to become his land agent, — an offer which Gallatin declined.

The winter of 1784-85 was passed in Kichmond, in the society of which town Mr. Gallatin began to find a relief and pleasure he had not yet expe rienced in America. At this period the Virginia capital was the gayest city in the Union, and famous for its abundant hospitality, rather facile manners, and the liberal tendency of its religious thought. Gallatin brought no prudishness and no orthodoxy in his Genevese baggage. One of the last acts of his life was to recognize in graceful and touching words the kindness he then met with : —

24 ALBERT GALLATIN

" I was received with that old proverbial Virginia hos pitality to which I know no parallel anywhere within the circle of my travels. It was not hospitality only that was shown to me. I do not know how it came to pass, but every one with whom I became acquainted appeared to take an interest in the young stranger. I was only the interpreter of a gentleman, the agent of a foreign house, that had a large claim for advances to the State, and this made me known to all the officers of government, and some of the most prominent members of the Legislature. It gave me the first opportunity of showing some symptoms of talent, even as a speaker, of which I was not myself aware. Every one encour aged me, and was disposed to promote my success in life. To name all those from whom I received offers of service would be to name all the most distinguished resi dents at that time in Richmond."

In the spring of 1785, fortified with a certificate from Governor Patrick Henry, commending him to the county surveyor, and intrusted by Henry with the duty of locating two thousand acres of lands in the western country for a third party, he set out from Richmond, on March 31, alone, on horseback. Following the course of the James River he crossed the Blue Ridge at the Peaks of Otter, and reached Greenbrier Court House on April 18. On the 29th he arrived at Clare's, on George's Creek, where he was joined by Savary. Their surveying operations were soon begun, each taking a separate course. An Indian rising broke up the operations of Savary, and both parties

EARLY LIFE 25

returned to Clare's. Gallatin appeared before the court of Monongalia County, at its October term, and took the "oath of allegiance and fidelity to the Commonwealth of Virginia." Clare's, his ac tual residence, was north of the Virginia line, but his affections were with the old Dominion. In November the partners hired from Clare a house at George's Creek, in Springfield township, and established their residence, after which they re turned to Richmond by way of Cumberland and the Potomac. In February, 1786, Gallatin made his permanent abode at his new home.

Mention has been made of the intimacy of the young emigrants with Jean Badollet, a college companion. When they left Geneva he was en gaged in the study of theology, and was now a teacher. He was included in the original plan of emigration, and the first letters of both Gallatin and Serre, who had for him an equal attachment, were to him, and year by year, through all the vicissitudes of their fortune, they kept him care fully informed of their movements and projects. For two years after their departure no word was received from him. At last, spurred by the sharp reproaches of Serre, he broke silence. In a letter written in March, 1783, informing Gallatin of the troubles in Switzerland, he excused himself on the plea that their common friend, Dumont, retained him at Geneva. In answer, Gallatin opened his plans of western settlement, which included the employment of his fortune in the establishment

26 ALBERT GALLATIN

of a number of families upon his lands. He sug-

-I O

gested to Badollet to bring with him the little money he had, to which enough would be added to establish him independently. Dumont was in vited to accompany him. But with a prudence which shows that his previous experience had not been thrown away upon him, Gallatin recommends his friend not to start at once, but to hold himself ready for the next, or, at the latest, the year suc ceeding, at the same time suggesting the idea of a general emigration of such Swiss malcontents as were small capitalists and farmers ; that of manu facturers and workmen he discouraged. It was not, however, until the spring of 1785, on the eve of leaving Richmond with some families which he had engaged to establish on his lands, that he felt justified in asking his old friend to cross the seas and share his lot. This invitation was accepted, and Badollet joined him at George's Creek.

The settlement beginning to spread, Gallatin bought another farm higher up the river, to which he gave the name of Friendship Hill. Here he later made his home.

The western part of Pennsylvania, embracing the area which stretches from the Alleghany Moun tains to Lake Erie, is celebrated for the wild, picturesque beauty of its scenery. Among its wooded hills the head waters of the Ohio have their source. At Fort Duquesne, or Pittsburgh, where the river takes a sudden northerly bend before finally settling in swelling volume on its

EARLY LIFE 27

southwesterly course to the Mississippi, the Mo- nongahela adds its mountain current, which sepa rates in its entire course from the Virginia line the two counties of Fayette and Washington. The Monongahela takes its rise in Monongalia County, Virginia, and flows to the northward. Friendship Hill is one of the bluffs on the right bank of the river, and faces the Laurel Ridge to the eastward. Braddock's Road, now the National Road, crosses the mountains, passing through Uniontown and Red Stone Old Fort (Brownsville), on its course to Pittsburgh. The county seat of Fayette is the borough of Union or Uniontown. Gallatin's log cabin, the beginning of New Geneva, was on the right bank of the Monongahela, about twelve miles to the westward of the county seat. Opposite, on the other side of the river, in Washington County, was Greensburg, where his friend Badollet was later established.

Again for a long period Gallatin left his family without any word whatever. His most indulgent friend, Mademoiselle Pictet, could hardly excuse his silence, and did not hesitate to charge that it was due to misfortunes which his pride prompted him to conceal. In the early days of 1786 a ru mor of his death reached Geneva, and greatly alarmed his family. Mr. Jefferson, then minister at Paris, wrote to Mr. Jay for information. This was Jefferson's first knowledge of the existence of the young man who was to become his politi cal associate, his philosophic companion, and his

28 ALBERT GALLATIN

truest friend. Meanwhile Gallatin had attained his twenty-fifth year and his majority. His family were no longer left in doubt as to his existence, and in response to his letters drafts were at once remitted to him for the sum of five thousand dol lars, through the banking-house of Robert Morris. This was, of course, immediately applied to his western experiment. The business of the partner ship now called for his constant attention. It required the exercise of a great variety of mental powers, a cool and discriminating judgment, com bined with an incessant attention to details. Na ture, under such circumstances, is not so attractive as she appears in youthful dreams; admirable in her original garb, she is annoying and obstinate when disturbed. The view of country which Friend ship Hill commands is said to rival Switzerland in its picturesque beauty, but years later, when the romance of the Monongahela hills had faded in the actualities of life, Gallatin wrote of it that "he did not know in the United States any spot which afforded less means to earn a bare subsist ence for those who could not live by manual labor." Gallatin has been blamed for "taking life awry and throwing away the advantages of education, social position, and natural intelligence," by his removal to the frontier, and his career compared with that of Hamilton and Dallas, who, like him, foreign born, rose to eminence in politics, and became secretaries of the treasury of the United States. But both of these were of English-speak-

EARLY LIFE 29

ing races. No foreigner of any other race ever obtained such distinction in American politics as Mr. Gallatin, and he only because he was the choice of a constituency, to every member of which he was personally known. It is questionable whether in any other condition of society he could have secured advancement by election — the true source of political power in all democracies. John Marshall, afterwards Chief Justice, recognized Gallatin 's talent soon after his arrival in Rich mond, offered him a place in his office without a fee, and assured him of future distinction in the profession of the law; but Patrick Henry was the more sagacious counselor; he advised Gallatin to go to the West, and predicted his success as a statesman. Modest as the beginning seemed in the country he had chosen, it was nevertheless a start in the right direction, as the future showed. It was in no sense a mistake.

Neither did the affairs of the wilderness wholly debar intercourse with the civilized world. Visit ing Richmond every winter, he gradually extended the circle of his acquaintance, and increased his personal influence; he also occasionally passed a few weeks at Philadelphia. Two visits to Maine are recorded in his diary, but whether they were of pleasure merely does not appear. One was in 1788, in midwinter, by stage and sleigh. On this excursion he descended the Androscoggin and crossed Merrymeeting Bay on the ice, returning by the same route in a snowstorm, which concealed

30 ALBERT GALLATIN

the banks on either side of the river, so that he governed his course by the direction of the wind. With the intellect of a prime minister he had the constitution of a pioneer. On one of these occa sions he intended to visit his old friends and hosts, the Lesderniers, but tho difficulty of finding a conveyance, and the rumor that the old gentleman was away from home, interfered with his purpose. He remembered their kindness, and later attempted to obtain pensions for them from the United States government.

But the time now arrived when the current of his domestic life was permanently diverted, and set in other channels. In May, 1789, he married Sophie Allegre, the daughter of William Allegre of a French Protestant family living at Richmond. The father was dead, and the mother took lodgers, of whom Gallatin was one. For more than a year he had addressed her and secured her affections. Her mother now refused her consent, and no choice was left to the young lovers but to marry without it. Little is known of this short but touching episode in Mr. Gallatin 's life. The young lady was warmly attached to him, and the letter written to her mother asking forgiveness for her marriage is charmingly expressed and full of feeling. They passed a few happy months at Friendship Hill, when suddenly she died. From this time Mr. Gallatin lost all heart in the western venture, and his most earnest wish was to turn his back forever upon Fayette County. In his suffering he would

EARLY LIFE 31

have returned to Geneva to Mademoiselle Pictet, could he have sold his Virginia lands. But this had become impossible at any price, and he had no other pecuniary resource but the generosity of his family.

Meanwhile the revolution had broken out in France. The rights of man had been proclaimed on the Champ de Mars. All Europe was uneasy and alarmed, and nowhere offered a propitious field for peaceful labor. But Gallatin did not long need other distraction than he was to find at home.

CHAPTER II

PENNSYLVANIA LEGISLATUEE

POLITICAL revolutions are the opportunity of youth. In England, Pitt and Fox; in America, Hamilton and Gouverneur Morris; in Europe, Napoleon and Pozzo di Borgo, before they reached their thirtieth year, helped to shape the political destiny of nations. The early maturity of Galla- tin was no less remarkable. In his voluminous correspondence there is no trace of youth. At nineteen his habits of thought were already formed, and his moral and intellectual tendencies were clearly marked in his character, and understood by himself. His tastes also were already devel oped. His life, thereafter, was in every sense a growth. The germs of every excellence, which came to full fruition in his subsequent career, may be traced in the preferences of his academic days. From youth to age he was consistent with himself. His mind was of that rare and original order which, reasoning out its own conclusions, seldom has cause to change.

His political opinions were early formed. A letter written by him in October, 1783, before he had completed his twenty-third year, shows the

PENNSYLVANIA LEGISLATURE 33

maturity of his intellect, and his analytic habit of thought. An extract gives the nature of the reasons which finally determined him to make his home in America : —

" This is what by degrees greatly influenced my judg ment. After my arrival in this country I was early convinced, upon a comparison of American governments with that of Geneva, that the latter is founded on false principles ; that the judicial power, in civil as well as criminal cases, the executive power wholly, and two thirds of the legislative power being lodged in two bodies which are almost self-made, and the members of which are chosen for life, — it is hardly possible but that this formidable aristocracy should, sooner or later, destroy the equilibrium which it was supposed could be main tained at Geneva."

The period from the peace of 1783 to the adop tion of the federal Constitution in 1787 was one of political excitement. The utter failure of the old Confederation to serve the purposes of national defense and safety for which it was framed had been painfully felt during the war. Independence had been achieved under it rather than by it, the patriotic action of some of the States supplying the deficiencies of others less able or less willing. By the radical inefficiency of the Confederation the war had been protracted, its success repeatedly imperiled, and, at its close, the results gained by it were constantly menaced. The more perfect union which was the outcome of the deliberations of the federal convention was therefore joyfully

34 ALBERT GALLATIN

accepted by the people at large. Indeed, it was popular pressure, and not the arguments of its advocates, that finally overcame the formidable opposition in and out of the convention to the Constitution. No written record remains of Mr. Gallatin's course during the sessions of the fed eral convention. He was not a member of the body, nor is his name connected with any public act having any bearing upon its deliberations. Of the direction of his influence, however, there can be no doubt. He had an abiding distrust of strong government, — a dread of the ambitions of men. Precisely what form he would have sub stituted for the legislative and executive system adopted nowhere appears in his writings, but cer tainly neither president nor senate would have been included. They bore too close a resemblance to king and lords to win his approval, no matter how restricted their powers. He would evidently have leaned to a single house, with a temporary executive directly appointed by itself; or, if elected by the people, then for a short term of office, with out renewal ; and he would have reduced its legis lative powers to the narrowest possible limit. The best government he held to be that which governs least ; and many of the ablest of that incomparable body of men who welded this Union held these views. But the yearning of the people was in the other direction. They felt the need of govern ment. They wanted the protection of a strong arm. It must not be forgotten that the thirteen

PENNSYLVANIA LEGISLATURE 35

colonies which declared their independence in 1776 were all seaboard communities, each with its port. They were all trading communities. The East, with its fisheries and timber; the Mid dle States, with their agricultural products and peltries; the South, with its tobacco; each saw, in that freedom from the restrictions of the Eng lish navigation laws which the treaty of peace secured, the promise of a boundless commerce. To protect commerce there must be a national power somewhere. Since the peace the govern ment had gained neither the affection of its own citizens nor the respect of foreign powers.

The federal Constitution was adopted Septem ber 17, 1787. The first State to summon a con vention of ratification was Pennsylvania. No one of the thirteen original States was more directly interested than herself. The centre of population lay somewhere in her limits, and there was rea sonable ground for hope that Philadelphia would become once more the seat of government. The delegates met at Philadelphia on November 2. An opposition declared itself at the beginning of the proceedings. Regardless of the popular impa tience, the majority allowed full scope to adverse argument, and it was not until December 12 that the final vote was taken and the Constitution rati fied, without recommendations, by a majority of two to one. In this body Fayette County was represented by Nicholas Breading and John Smilie. The latter gentleman, of Scotch-Irish birth, an

36 ALBERT GALLATIN

• adroit debater, led the opposition. In the course

of his criticisms he enunciated the doctrines which were soon to become a party cry; the danger of the Constitution "in inviting rather than guarding against the approaches of tyranny; " "its tendency to a consolidation, not a confederation, of the States." Mr. Gallatin does not appear to have sought to be a delegate to this body, but his hand may be traced through the speeches of Smilie in the precision with which the principles of the op position were formulated and declared; and his subsequent course plainly indicates that his influ ence was exerted in the interest of the dissatisfied minority. The ratification was received by the people with intense satisfaction, but the delay in debate lost the State the honor of precedence in the honorable vote of acquiescence, — the Dela ware convention having taken the lead by a unani mous vote. For the moment the Pennsylvania Anti-Federalists clung to the hope that the Con stitution might yet fail to receive the assent of the required number of States, but as one after another fell into line, this hope vanished.

One bold expedient remained. The ratification of some of the States was coupled with the re commendation of certain amendments. Massachu setts led the way in this, Virginia followed, and New York, which, in the language of the day, became the eleventh pillar of the federal edifice, on July 26, 1788, accompanied her ratification with a circular letter to the governors of all the

PENNSYLVANIA LEGISLATURE 37

States, recommending that a general convention be called.1

The argument taken in this letter was the only one which had any chance of commending itself to popular favor. It was in these words : " that the apprehension and discontents which the articles occasion cannot be removed or allayed unless an act to provide for the calling of a new convention be among the first that shall be passed by the next Congress." This document, made public at once, encouraged the Pennsylvania Anti-Federalists to a last effort to bring about a new convention, to undo or radically alter the work of the old. A conference held at Harrisburg, on September 3, 1788, was participated in by thirty-three gentle men, from various sections of the State, who as sembled in response to the call of a circular letter which originated in the county of Cumberland in the month of August. The city of Philadelphia and thirteen counties were represented; six of the dissenting members of the late convention were present, among whom was Smilie. He and Gal- latin represented the county of Fayette.

Smilie, Gallatin's earliest political friend, was born in 1742, and was therefore about twenty years his senior. He came to the United States in youth, and had grown up in the section he now represented. His popularity is shown by his ser-

1 The drafting of this letter was, notwithstanding his protest, intrusted to John Jay, one of the strongest of the Federal leaders, and a warm supporter of the Constitution as it stood.

38 ALBERT GALLATIN

vice in the state legislature, and during twelve years in Congress as representative or as senator. In any estimate of Mr. Gallatin, this early influ ence must be taken into account. The friendship thus formed continued until Smilie's death in 1816. From the adviser he became the ardent supporter of Mr. Gallatin.

Blair McClanachan, of Philadelphia County, was elected chairman of the conference. The re sult of this deliberation was a report in the form of a series of resolutions, of which two drafts, both in Mr. Gallatin's handwriting, are among his papers* now in the keeping of the New York Historical Society. The original resolutions were broad in scope, and suggested a plan of action of a dual nature; the one of which failing, resort could be had to the other without compromising the movement by delay. In a word, it proposed an opposition by a party organization. The first resolution was adroitly framed to avoid the censure with which the people at large, whose satisfaction with the new Constitution had grown with the fresh adhesions of State after State to positive enthusiasm, would surely condemn any attempt to dissolve the Union formed under its provisions. This resolution declared that it was in order to prevent a dissolution of the Union and to secure liberty, that a revision was necessary. The second expressed the opinion of the conference to be, that the safest manner to obtain such revision was to conform to the request of the State of New York,

PENNSYLVANIA LEGISLATURE 39

and to urge the calling of a new convention, and recommended that the Pennsylvania legislature be petitioned to apply for that purpose to the new Congress. These were declaratory. The third and fourth provided, first, for an organization of committees in the several counties to correspond with each other and with similar committees in other States; secondly, invited the friends to amendments in the several States to meet in con ference at a fixed time and place. This plan of committees of correspondence and of a meeting of delegates was simply a revival of the methods of the Sons of Liberty, from whose action sprung the first Continental Congress of 1774.

The formation of such an organization would surely have led to disturbance, perhaps to civil war. During the progress of the New York con vention swords and bayonets had been drawn, and blood had been shed in the streets of Albany, where the Anti -Federalists excited popular rage by burning the new Constitution. But the thirty- three gentlemen who met at Harrisburg wisely tempered these resolutions to a moderate tone. Thus modified, they recommended, first, that the people of the State should acquiesce in the organi zation of the government, while holding in view the necessity of very considerable amendments and alterations essential to preserve the peace and har mony of the Union. Secondly, that a revision by general convention was necessary. Thirdly, that the legislature should be requested to apply to

40 ALBERT GALLATIN

Congress for that purpose. The petition recom mended twelve amendments, selected from those already proposed by other States. These were of course restrictive. The report was made public in the "Pennsylvania Packet" of September 15. With this the agitation appears to have ceased. On September 13 Congress notified the States by resolution to appoint electors under the provisions of the Constitution. The unanimous choice of Washington as president hushed all opposition, and for a time the Anti -Federalists sunk into in significance.

The persistent labors of the friends of revision were not without result. The amendments pro posed by Virginia and New York were laid before the House of Representatives. Seventeen received the two thirds vote of the House. After confer ence with the Senate, in which Mr. Madison ap peared as manager for the House, these, reduced in number to twelve by elimination and compres sion, were adopted by the requisite two thirds vote, and transmitted to the legislatures of the States for approval. Ratified by a sufficient num ber of States, they became a part of the Consti tution. They were general, and declaratory of personal rights, and in no instance restrictive of the power of the general government.

In 1789, the Assembly of Pennsylvania calling a convention to revise the Constitution of the State, Mr. Gallatin was sent as a delegate from Fayette County. To the purposes of this conven-

PENNSYLVANIA LEGISLATURE 41

tion he was opposed, as a dangerous precedent. He had endeavored to organize an opposition to it in the western counties, by correspondence with his political friends. His objections were the dangers of alterations in government, and the ab surdity of the idea that the Constitution ever con templated a change by the will of a mere majority. Such a doctrine, once admitted, would enable not only the legislature, but a majority of the more popular house, were two established, to make an other appeal to the people on the first occasion, and, instead of establishing on solid foundations a new government, would open the door to per petual change, and destroy that stability which is essential to the welfare of a nation ; since no con stitution acquires the permanent affection of the people, save in proportion to its duration and age. Finally, such changes would sooner or later con clude in an appeal to arms, — the true meaning of the popular and dangerous words, "an appeal to the people." The opposition was begun too late, however, to admit of combined effort, and was not persisted in; and Mr. Gallatin himself, with practical good sense, consented to serve as a delegate. Throughout his political course the pride of mastery never controlled his actions. When debarred from leadership he did not sulk in his tent, but threw his weight in the direction of his principles. The convention met at Phila delphia on November 24, 1789, and closed its labors on September 2, 1790. This was Galla-

42 ALBERT GALLATIN

tin's apprenticeship in the public service. Among his papers are a number of memoranda, some of them indicating much elaboration of speeches made, or intended to be made, in this body. One is an argument in favor of enlarging the representation in the House; another is against a plan of choos ing senators by electors; another concerns the liberty of the press. There is, further, a memo randum of his motion in regard to the right of suffrage, by virtue of which "every freeman who has attained the age of twenty -one years, and been a resident and inhabitant during one year next before the day of election, every naturalized free holder, every naturalized citizen who had been assessed for state or county taxes for two years before election day, or who had resided ten years successively in the State, should be entitled to the suffrage, paupers and vagabonds only being ex cluded." Certainly, in his conservative limitations upon suffrage, he did not consult his own interest as a large landholder inviting settlement, nor pander to the natural desires of his constituency.

In an account of this convention, written at a later period, Mr. Gallatin said that it was the first public body to which he was elected, and that he took but a subordinate share in the debates; that it was one of the ablest bodies of which he was ever a member, and with which he was ac quainted, and, excepting Madison and Marshall, that it embraced as much talent and knowledge as any Congress from 1795 to 1812, beyond which

PENNSYLVANIA LEGISLATURE 43

his personal knowledge did not extend. Among its members were Thomas McKean, signer of the Declaration of Independence and president of the Continental Congress, Thomas Mifflin and Timo thy Pickering, of the Revolutionary army, and Smilie and Findley, Gallatin's political friends. General Mifflin was its president.

But mental distraction brought Mr. Gallatin no peace of heart at this period, and when the excitement of the winter was over he fell into a state of almost morbid melancholy. To his friend Badollet he wrote from Philadelphia, early in March, that life in Fayette County had no more charms for him, and that he would gladly leave America. But his lands were unsalable at any price, and he saw no means of support at Geneva. Some one has said, with a profound knowledge of human nature, that no man is sure of happiness who has not the capacity for continuous labor of a disagreeable kind. The occasional glimpses into Mr. Gallatin's inner nature, which his correspond ence affords, show that up to this period he was not supposed by his friends or by himself to have this capacity. In the letter which his guardian wrote to him after his flight from home, he was reproached with his "natural indolence." His good friend, Mademoiselle Pictet, accused him of being hard to please, and disposed to ennui ; and again, as late as 1787, repeats to him, in a tone of sorrow, the reports brought to her of his "con tinuance in his old habit of indolence," his indif-

44 ALBERT GALLATIN

ference to society, his neglect of his dress, and general indifference to everything but study and reading, tastes which, she added, he might as well have cultivated at Geneva as in the new world; and he himself, in the letter to Badollet just men tioned, considers that his habits and his laziness would prove insuperable bars to his success in any profession in Europe. In estimation of this self- condemnation, it must be borne in mind that the Genevans were intellectual Spartans. Gallatin must be measured by that high standard. But if the charge of indolence could have ever justly lain against Gallatin, — a charge which his intellectual vigor at twenty-seven seems to challenge, — it cer tainly could never have been sustained after he fairly entered on his political and public career. In October, 1790, he was elected by a two thirds majority to represent Fayette County in the legis lature of the State of Pennsylvania; James Find- ley was his colleague, John Smilie being advanced to the state Senate. Mr. Gallatin was reflected to the Assembly in 1791 and 1792, without opposition. Among his papers there is a memorandum of his legislative service during these three years, and a manuscript volume of extracts from the Journals of the House, from January 14, 1791, to December 17, 1794. They form part of the ex tensive mass of documents and letters which were collected and partially arranged by himself, with a view to posthumous publication. Here is an extract from the memorandum : —

PENNSYLVANIA LEGISLATURE 45

" I acquired an extraordinary influence in that body fthe Pennsylvania House of Representatives] ; the more remarkable as I was always in a party minority. I was indebted for it to my great industry and to the facility with which I could understand and carry on the current business. The laboring oar was left almost exclusively to me. In the session of 1791-1792, I was put on thirty-five committees, prepared all their reports, and drew all their bills. Absorbed by those details, my at tention was turned exclusively to administrative laws, and not to legislation properly so called. ... I failed, though the bill I had introduced passed the House, in my efforts to lay the foundation for a better system of education. Primary education was almost universal in Pennsylvania, but very bad, and the bulk of school masters incompetent, miserably paid, and held in no consideration. It appeared to me that in order to cre ate a sufficient number of competent teachers, and to raise the standard of general education, intermediate academical education was an indispensable preliminary step, and the object of the bill was to establish in each county an academy, allowing to each out of the treasury a sum equal to that raised by taxation in the county for its support. But there was at that time in Pennsylva nia a Quaker and a German opposition to every plan of general education.

" The spirit of internal improvements had not yet been awakened. Still, the first turnpike-road in the United States was that from Philadelphia to Lancaster, which met with considerable opposition. This, as well as every temporary improvement in our communications (roads and rivers) and preliminary surveys, met, of course, with my warm support. But it was in the fiscal

46 ALBERT GALLATIN

department that I was particularly employed, and the circumstances of the times favored the restoration of the finances of the State.

" The report of the Committee of Ways and Means of the session 1790—91 was entirely prepared by me, known to be so, and laid the foundation of my repu tation. I was quite astonished at the general encomi ums bestowed upon it, and was not at all aware that I had done so well. It was perspicuous and comprehen sive ; but I am confident that its true merit, and that which gained me the general confidence, was its being founded in strict justice, without the slightest regard to party feelings or popular prejudices. The principles assumed, and which were carried into effect, were the immediate reimbursement and extinction of the state paper-money, the immediate payment in specie of all the current expenses, or warrants on the treasury (the postponement and uncertainty of which had given rise to shameful and corrupt speculations), and provision for discharging without defalcation every debt and engage ment previously recognized by the State. In conform ity with this, the State paid to its creditors the difference between the nominal amount of the state debt assumed by the United States and the rate at which it was funded by the act of Congress.

" The proceeds of the public lands, together with the arrears, were the fund which not only discharged all the public debts, but left a large surplus. The apprehen sion that this would be squandered by the legislature was the principal inducement for chartering the Bank of Pennsylvania, with a capital of two millions of dollars, of which the State subscribed one half. This, and sim ilar subsequent investments, enabled Pennsylvania to

PENNSYLVANIA LEGISLATURE 47

defray, out of the dividends, all the expenses of govern ment without any direct tax during the forty ensuing years, and till the adoption of the system of internal improvement, which required new resources.

" It was my constant assiduity to business, and the assistance derived from it by many members, which en abled the Republican party in the legislature, then a minority on a joint ballot, to elect me, and no other but me of that party, senator of the United States."

Among the reports enumerated by Mr. Gallatin, as those of which he was the author, is one made by a committee on March 22, 1793, that they . . . are of opinion slavery is inconsistent with every principle of humanity, justice, and right, and re pugnant to the spirit and express letter of the Constitution of the Commonwealth. Added to this was a resolution for its abolition in the Com monwealth.

The seat of government was changed from New York to Philadelphia in 1790, and the first Con gress assembled there in the early days of Decem ber for its final session. Philadelphia was in glee over the transfer of the departments. The con vention which framed the new state Constitution met here in the fall, and the legislature was also holding its sessions. The atmosphere was politi cal. The national and local representatives met each other at all times and in all places, and the public affairs were the chief topic in and out of doors. In this busy whirl Gallatin made many friends, but Philadelphia was no more to his taste

48 ALBERT GALLATIN

as a residence than Boston. He was disgusted

O

with the ostentatious display of wealth, the result not of industry but of speculation, and not in the hands of the most deserving members of the com munity. Later he became more reconciled to the tone of Pennsylvania society, comparing it with that of New York ; he was especially pleased with its democratic spirit, and the absence of family influence. "In Pennsylvania," he says, unot only we have neither Livingstons, nor Kensselaers, but from the suburbs of Philadelphia to the banks of the Ohio I do not know a single family that has any extensive influence. An equal distribution of property has rendered every individual independ ent, and there is amongst us true and real equal ity. In a word, as I am lazy, I like a country where living is cheap ; and as I am poor, I like a country where no person is very rich."

Hamilton's excise bill was a bone of contention in the national and state legislatures throughout the winter. Direct taxation upon anything was unpopular, that on distilled spirits the most dis tasteful to Pennsylvania, where whiskey stills were numerous in the Alleghanies. To the bill intro duced into Congress a reply was immediately made January 14, 1791, by the Pennsylvania Assembly in a series of resolutions which are supposed to have been drafted by Mr. Gallatin, and to have been the first legislative paper from his pen. They distinctly charged that the obnoxious bill was "subversive of the peace, liberty, and rights of the citizen."

PENNSYLVANIA LEGISLATURE 49

Tax by excise has always been offensive to the American people, as it was to their ancestors across the sea. It was characterized by the first Conti nental Congress of 1774 as "the horror of all free States." Notwithstanding their warmth, these resolutions passed the Assembly by a vote of 40 to 16. The course of this excitement must be followed; as it swept Mr. Gallatin in its mad current, and but for his self-control, courage, and adroitness would have wrecked him on the break ers at the outset of his political voyage. The ex cise law passed Congress on March 3, 1791. On June 22 the state legislature, by a vote of 36 to 11, requested their senators and representatives in Congress to oppose every part of the bill which "shall militate against the rights and liberties of the people."

The western counties of Pennsylvania — West moreland, Fayette, Washington, and Allegheny — lie around the head -waters of the Ohio in a radius of more than a hundred miles. At this time they contained a population of about seventy thousand souls. Pittsburgh, the seat of justice, had about twelve hundred inhabitants. The Alle- ghany Mountains separate this wild region from the eastern section of the State. There were few roads of any kind, and these lay through woods. The mountain passes could be traveled only on foot or horseback. The only trade with the East was by pack-horses, while communication with the South was cut off by hostile Indian tribes who

50 ALBERT GALLATIN

held the banks of the Ohio. This isolation from the older, denser, and more civilized settlements bred in the people a spirit of self-reliance and in dependence. They were in great part Scotch-Irish Presbyterians, a religious and warlike race to whom the hatred of an exciseman was a tradition of their forefathers. Having no market for their grain, they were compelled to preserve it by con verting it into whiskey. The still was the neces sary appendage of every farm. The tax was light, but payable in money, of which there was little or none. Its imposition, therefore, coupled with the declaration of its oppressive nature by the Pennsylvania legislature, excited a spirit of deter mined opposition near akin to revolution.

Unpopular in all the western part of the State, Hamilton's bill was especially odious to the people of Washington County. The first meeting in op position to it was held at Red Stone Old Fort or Brownsville, the site of one of those ancient re mains of the mound-builders which abound in the western valleys. It was easily reached by Brad- dock's Road, the chief highway of the country. Here gathered on July 27, 1791, a number of persons opposed to the law, when it was agreed that county committees should be convened in the four counties at the respective seats of justice. Brackenridge, in his "Incidents of the Western Insurrection," says that Albert Gallatin was clerk of the meeting. One of these committees met in the town of Washington on August 23, when vio-

PENNSYLVANIA LEGISLATUKE 51

lent resolutions were adopted. Gallatin, engaged at Philadelphia, was not present at this assem blage, three of whose members were deputed to meet delegates from the counties of Westmore land, Fayette, and Allegheny, at Pittsburgh, on the first Tuesday in September following, to agree upon an address to the legislature on the subject of excise and other grievances. At the Pittsburgh meeting eleven delegates appeared for the four counties. The resolutions adopted by them, gen eral in character, read more like a declaration of grievances as a basis for revolution than a petition for special redress. No wonder that the secretary of the treasury stigmatized them as "intemperate." They charge that in the laws of the late Congress hasty strides had been made to all that was unjust and oppressive. They complain of the increase in the salaries of officials, of the unreasonable in terest of the national debt, of the non-discrimina tion between original holders and transferees of the public securities, of the National Bank as a base offspring of the funding system; finally, in detail, of the excise law of March 3, 1791. At this meeting James Marshall and David Bradford represented Washington County.

In August government offices of inspection were opened. The spirit of resistance was now fully aroused, and in the early days of September the collectors for Washington, Westmoreland, and Fayette were treated with violence. Unwilling to proceed to excessive measures, and no doubt

52 ALBERT GALLATIN

swayed by the attitude of the Pennsylvania legis lature, Congress in October referred the law back to Hamilton for revision. He reported an amended act on March 6, 1792, which was immediately passed, and became a law March 8. It was to take effect on the last day of June succeeding. By it the rate of duty was reduced, a privilege of time as to the running of licenses of stills granted, and the tax ordered only for such time as they were actually used.

But these modifications did not satisfy the mal contents of the four western counties, and they met again on August 21, 1792, at Pittsburgh. Of this second Pittsburgh meeting Albert Gallatin was chosen secretary. Badollet went up with Gal latin. John Smilie, James Marshall, and James Bradford of Washington County were present. Bradford, Marshall, Gallatin, and others were appointed to draw up a remonstrance to Congress. In order to carry out with regularity and concert the measures agreed upon, a committee of corre spondence was appointed, and the meeting closed with the adoption of the violent resolutions passed at the Washington meeting of 1791 : —

" Whereas, some men may be found among us so far lost to every sense of virtue and feeling for the distresses of this country as to accept offices for the collection of the duty.

" Resolved, therefore, that in future we will consider such persons as unworthy of our friendship ; have no intercourse or dealings with them ; withdraw from them

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every assistance, and withhold all the comforts of life which depend upon those duties that as men and fellow citizens we owe to each other ; and upon all occasions treat them with that contempt they deserve ; and that it be, and it is hereby, most earnestly recommended to the people at large, to follow the same line of conduct towards them."

If such an excommunication were to be meted out to an offending neighbor, what measure would the excise man receive if he came from abroad on his unwelcome errand?

These resolutions were signed by Mr. Gallatin as clerk, and made public through the press. Eesolutions of this character, if not criminal, reach the utmost limit of indiscretion, and political in discretion is quite as dangerous as crime. The petition to Congress, subscribed by the inhabitants of western Pennsylvania, was drawn by Gallatin; while explicit in terms, it was moderate in tone. It represented the unequal operation of the act. "A duty laid on the common drink of a nation, instead of taxing the citizens in proportion to their property, falls as heavy on the poorest class as on the rich;" and it ingeniously pointed out that the distance of the inhabitants of the western counties from market prevented their bringing the produce of their lands to sale, either in grain or meal. "We are therefore distillers through necessity, not choice ; that we may comprehend the greatest value in the smallest size and weight."

Hamilton, indignant, reported the proceedings

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to the President on September 9, 1792, and de manded instant punishment. Washington, who was at Mount Vernon, was unwilling to go to extremes, but consented to issue a proclamation, which, drafted by Hamilton, and countersigned by Jefferson, was published September 15, 1792. It earnestly admonished all persons to desist from unlawful combinations to obstruct the operations of the laws, and charged all courts, magistrates, and officers with their enforcement. There was no mistaking Hamilton's intention to enforce the law. Prosecutions in the Circuit Court, held at Yorktown in October, were ordered against the Pittsburgh offenders, but no proof could be had to sustain an indictment.

The President's proclamation startled the west ern people, and some uneasiness was felt as to how such of their representatives as had taken part in the Pittsburgh meeting would be received when they should go up to the legislature in the winter. Bradford and Smilie accompanied Gal- latin; Smilie to take his seat in the state Senate, and Bradford to represent Washington County in the House, where he "cut a poor figure." Gal- latin despised him, and characterized him as a "tenth-rate lawyer and an empty drum." Gal- latin found, however, that although the Pittsburgh meeting had hurt the general interest of his party throughout the State, and "rather defeated" the repeal of the excise law, his eastern friends did not turn the cold shoulder to him. He said to

PENNSYLVANIA LEGISLATURE 65

every one whom he knew that the resolutions were perhaps too violent and undoubtedly highly impol itic, but, in his opinion, contained nothing illegal. Meanwhile federal officers proceeded to enforce the law in Washington County. A riot ensued, and the office was forcibly closed. Bills were found against two of the offenders in the federal court, and warrants to arrest and bring them to Philadelphia for trial were issued. Gallatin be lieved the men innocent, and did not hesitate to advise Badollet to keep them out of the way when the marshal should go to serve the writs, but de precated any insult to the officer. He thought "the precedent a very dangerous one to drag peo ple such a distance in order to be tried on govern mental prosecutions." Here the matter rested for a season.

At this session of the legislature Gallatin intro duced a new system of county taxation, proposed a clause providing for "trustees yearly elected, one to each township, without whose consent no tax is to be raised, nor any above one per cent, on the value of lands," which he hoped would "tend to crush the aristocracy of every town in the State." Also he proposed a plan to establish a school and library in each county, with a sufficient immediate sum in money, and a yearly allowance for a teacher in the English language^

CHAPTER III

UNITED STATES SENATE

THE death of the grandfather of Mr. Gallatin, and soon after of his aunt, strongly tempted him to make a journey to Geneva in the summer of 1793. The political condition of Europe at that time was of thrilling interest. On January 21 the head of Louis XVI. fell under the guillotine, to which Marie Antoinette soon followed him. The armies of the coalition were closing in upon France. Of the political necessity for these state executions there has always been and will always be different judgments. That of Mr. Gallatin is of peculiar value. It is found expressed in inti mate frankness in a letter to his friend Badollet, written at Philadelphia, February 1, 1794.

" France at present offers a spectacle unheard of at any other period. Enthusiasm there produces an en ergy equally terrible and sublime. All those virtues which depend upon social or family affections, all those amiable weaknesses, which our natural feelings teach us to love or respect, have disappeared before the stronger, the only, at present, powerful passion, the Amor Patrice. I must confess my soul is not enough steeled, not some times to shrink at the dreadful executions which have

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restored at least apparent internal tranquillity to that republic. Yet upon the whole, as long as the combined despots press upon every frontier, and employ every en gine to destroy and distress the interior parts, I think they, and they alone, are answerable for every act of severity or injustice, for every excess, nay for every crime, which either of the contending parties in France may have committed."

Within a few years the publication of the corre spondence of De Fersen, the agent of the king and queen, has supplied the proof of the charge that they were in secret correspondence with the allied sovereigns to introduce foreign troops upon the soil of France, — a crime which no people has ever condoned.

The French Revolution, which from its begin ning in 1789 reacted upon the United States with fully the force that the American Revolution ex erted upon France, had become an important fac tor in American politics. The intemperance of Genet, the minister of the French Convention to the United States on the one hand, and the breaches of neutrality by England on the other, were divid ing the American people into English and French parties. The Federalists sympathized with the English, the late enemies, and the Republicans with the French, the late allies, of the United States.

Mr. Gallatin had about made up his mind to visit Europe, when an unexpected political honor changed his plans. The Pennsylvania legislature

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elected him a senator of the United States on joint ballot, a distinction the more singular in that the legislature was Federalist and Mr. Gallatin was a representative of a Republican district, and strong in that faith. Moreover, he was not a candidate either of his own motion or by that of his friends, but, on the contrary, had doubts as to his eligibility because of insufficient residence. This objection, which he himself stated in caucus, was disregarded, and on February 28, 1793, by a vote of 45 to 37, he was chosen senator. Mr. Gallatin had just completed his thirty-second year, and now a happy marriage came opportunely to stimulate his ambition and smooth his path to other honors.

Among the friends made at Philadelphia was Alexander J. Dallas, a gentleman two years Gal- latin's senior, whose career, in some respects, resembled his own. He was born in Jamaica, of Scotch parents; had been thoroughly educated at Edinburgh and Westminster, and, coming to the United States in 1783, had settled in Philadel phia. He now held the post of secretary of state for Pennsylvania. Mr. Gallatin 's constant com mittee service brought him into close relations with the secretary, and the foundation was laid of a lasting political friendship and social intimacy. In the recess of the legislature, Mr. Gallatin joined Mr. Dallas and his wife in an excursion to the northward. Mr. Gallatin 's health had suffered from close confinement and too strict attention to

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business, and he needed recreation and diversion. In the course of the journey the party was joined by some ladies, friends of Mrs. Dallas, among whom was Miss Hannah Nicholson. The excur sion lasted nearly four weeks. The result was that Mr. Gallatin returned to Philadelphia the accepted suitor of this young lady. He describes her in a letter to Badollet as "a girl about twenty- five years old, who is neither handsome nor rich, but sensible, well-informed, good-natured, and be longing to a respectable and very amiable family." Nor was he mistaken in his choice, — a more charming nature, a more perfect, well-rounded character than hers is rarely found. They were married on November 11, 1793. She was his faithful companion throughout his long and honor able career, and death separated them but by a few months. This alliance greatly widened his political connection.

Commodore James Nicholson, his wife's father, famous in the naval annals of the United States as the captain of the Trumbull, the first of Ameri can frigates, at the time resided in New York, and was one of the acknowledged leaders of the Republican party in the city. His two brothers — Samuel and John — were captains in the naval service. His two elder daughters were married to influential gentlemen ; — Catharine to Colonel Few, senator from Georgia; Frances, to Joshua Seney , member of Congress from Maryland ; Maria later (1809) married John Montgomery, who had

60 ALBERT GALLATIN

been member of Congress from Maryland, and was afterwards mayor of Baltimore. A son, James Witter Nicholson, then a youth of twenty-one, was, in 1795, associated with Mr. Gallatin in his Western Company, and, removing to Fayette, made his home in what was later and is now known as New Geneva. Here, in connection with Mr. Gallatin and the brothers Kramer, Germans, he established extensive glass works, which proved profitable.

Mr. Gallatin 's election to the United States Senate did not disqualify him for his unfinished legislative term, and, on his return to Philadel phia, he was again plunged in his manifold duties. The few days which intervened between his mar riage and the meeting of Congress — a short honey moon — were spent under the roof of Commodore Nicholson in New York.

On February 28, 1793, the Vice-President laid before the Senate a certificate from the legislature of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to the elec tion of Albert Gallatin as senator of the United States. Mr. Gallatin took his seat December 2, 1793. The business of the session was opened by the presentation of a petition signed by nineteen individuals of Yorktown, Pennsylvania, stating that Mr. Gallatin had not been nine years a citi zen of the United States. This petition had been handed to Robert Morris, Mr. Gallatin 's colleague for Pennsylvania, by a member of the legislature

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for the county of York, but he had declined to present it, and declared to Mr. Gallatin his inten tion to be perfectly neutral on the occasion — at least so Mr. Gallatin wrote to his wife the next day; but Morris did not hold fast to this resolu tion, as the votes in the sequel show. The peti tion was ordered to lie upon the table. On De cember 11 Messrs. Kutherford, Cabot, Ellsworth, Livermore, and Mitchell were appointed a com mittee to consider the petition. These gentlemen, Gallatin wrote, were undoubtedly uthe worst for him that could have been chosen, and did not seem to him to be favorably disposed." He him self considered the legal point involved as a nice and difficult one, and likely to be decided by a party vote. The fourth article of the Constitution of the first Confederation of the United States reads as follows : —

" The better to secure and perpetuate mutual friend ship and intercourse among the people of the different States in this Union, the free inhabitants of each of these States, paupers, vagabonds, and fugitives from justice excepted, shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of free citizens in the several States."

Article 1, section 3, of the new Constitution declares : —

" No person shall be a senator who shall not have attained to the age of thirty years, and been nine years a citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that State for which he shall be chosen."

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Mr. Gallatin landed in Massachusetts in July, 1780, while still a minor. His residence, there fore, which had been uninterrupted, extended over thirteen years. He took the oath of citizenship and allegiance to Virginia in October, 1785, since which, until his election in 1793, nine years, the period called for by the United States Constitu tion, had not elapsed. On the one hand, his actual residence exceeded the required period of citizenship; on the other, his legal and technical residence as a citizen was insufficient. In point of fact, his intention to become a citizen dated from the summer of 1783.

To take from the case the air of party proscrip tion, which it was beginning to assume, the Senate discharged its special committee, and raised a general committee on elections to consider this and other cases. On February 10, 1794, the re port of this committee was submitted, and a day was set for a hearing by the Senate, with open doors. On that day Mr. Gallatin exhibited a written statement of facts, agreed to between him self and the petitioners, and the case was left to the Senate on its merits. On the 28th a test vote was taken upon a motion to the effect that " Al bert Gallatin, returned to this House as a member for the State of Pennsylvania, is duly qualified for and elected to a seat in the Senate of the United States," and it was decided in the negative — yeas, 12; nays, 14. 1

1 The yeas and nays being required by one fifth of the senators

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Motion being made that the election of Albert Gallatin to be a senator of the United States was void, — he not having been a citizen of the United States for the term of years required as a qualifi cation to be a senator of the United States, — it was further moved to divide the question at the word "void;" and the question being then taken on the first paragraph, it passed in the affirmative — yeas, 14; nays, 12. The yeas and nays were required, and the Senate divided as before. The resolution was then put and adopted by the same vote. Thus Mr. Gallatin, thirteen years a resi dent of the country, a large land -holder in Vir ginia, and for several terms a member of the Penn sylvania legislature, was excluded from a seat in the Senate of the United States.

Mr. Gallatin conducted his case with great dig nity. On being asked whether he had any testi mony to produce, he replied, in writing, that there was not sufficient matter charged in the petition and proved by the testimony to vacate his seat, and declined to go to the expense of collecting evidence until that preliminary question was set tled.

Short as the period was during which Mr. Gal latin held his seat, it was long enough for him

present, there were : Affirmative. — Bradley, Brown, Burr, But ler, Edwards, Gunn, Jackson, Langdon, Martin, Monroe, Robin son, Taylor ; 12.

Negative. — Bradford, Cabot, Ellsworth, Foster, Frelinghuysen, Hawkins, Izard, King, Livermore, Mitchell, Morris, Potts, Strong, Vining; 14.

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seriously to annoy the Federal leaders. Indeed, it is questionable whether, if he had delayed his embarrassing motion, a majority of the Senate could have been secured against him. Certain it is that the Committee on Elections, appointed on December 11, did not send in its report until the day after Mr. Gallatin moved his resolution, call ing upon the secretary of the treasury for an elab orate statement of the debt on January 1, 1794, under distinct heads, including the balances to creditor States, a statement of loans, domestic and foreign, contracted from the beginning of the government, statements of exports and imports; finally for a summary statement of the receipts and expenditures to the last day of December, 1790, distinguishing the moneys received under each branch of the revenue and the moneys expended under each of the appropriations^ and stating the balances of each branch of the revenue remaining unexpended on that day, and also calling for simi lar and separate statements for the years 1791, 1792, 1793. This resolution, introduced on Janu ary 8, was laid over. On the 20th it was adopted. It was not until February 10 that a reply from the secretary of the treasury was received by the Senate, and on the llth submitted to Gallatin, Ellsworth, and Taylor for consideration and re port. In this letter (February 6, 1794) Hamilton stated the difficulty of supplying the precise infor mation called for, with the clerical forces of the department, the interruption it would cause in the

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daily routine of the service, and deprecated the practice of such unexpected demands.

With this response of the secretary the inquiry fell to the ground, but it was neither forgotten nor forgiven by his adherents, and Mr. Gallatin paid the penalty on at least one occasion. This was years later, when he himself was secretary of the treasury. On March 2, 1803, the day before the adjournment of Congress, Mr. Griswold, Fed eralist from Connecticut, attacked the correctness of the accounts of the sinking fund, and demanded an answer to a resolution of the House on the management of this bureau. Had such been his desire, Mr. Gallatin was foreclosed from Hamil ton's excuse. On the night of the 3d he sent in an elaborate statement which set accusation at rest and criticism at defiance.

Mr. Gallatin 's short stay in the Senate revealed to the Federalists the character of the man, who, disdaining the lesser flight, checked only at the highest game. He accepted his exclusion with perfect philosophy. Soon after the session opened he said, "My feelings cannot be much hurt by an unfavorable decision, since having been elected is an equal proof of the confidence the legislature of Pennsylvania reposed in me, and not being quali fied, if it is so decided, cannot be imputed to me as a fault." His exclusion was by no means a disadvantage to him. It made common cause of the honor of Pennsylvania and his own; it en deared him to the Eepublicans of his State as a

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martyr to their principles. It "secured him," to use his own words, "many staunch" friends throughout the Union, and extended his reputa tion, hitherto local and confined, over the entire land; more than all, it led him to the true field of political contest — the House of Kepresentatives of the people of the United States.

CHAPTER IV

THE WHISKEY INSURRECTION

MR. GALLATIN was now out of public life. For eighteen months since he came up to the legisla ture with his friends of the Pittsburgh convention, he had not returned to Fayette. His private con cerns were suffering in his absence. Neither his barn, his meadow, nor his house was finished at the close of 1793. In May, 1794, he took his wife to his country home. Their hopes of a sum mer of recreation and domestic comfort in the wild beauties of the Monongahela were not to be real ized. Before the end of June the peaceful country was in a state of mad agitation.

The seeds of political discontent, sown at Pitts burgh in 1792, had ripened to an abundant har vest. An act passed by Congress June 5, 1794, giving to the state courts concurrent jurisdiction in excise cases, removed the grievance of which Gallatin complained, the dragging of accused per sons to Philadelphia for trial, but was not con strued to be retroactive in its operation. The mar shal, accordingly, found it to be his duty to serve the writs of May 31 against those who had fallen under their penalties. These writs were return-

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able in Philadelphia. They were served without trouble in Fayette County. Not so in Allegheny. Here on July 15, 1794, the marshal had completed his service, when, while still in the execution of his office, and in company with the inspector, he was followed and fired upon. The next day a body of men went to the house of the marshal and demanded that he should deliver up his commis sion. They were fired upon and dispersed, six were wounded, and the leader killed. A general rising followed. The marshal's house, though de fended by Major Kirkpatrick, with a squad from the Pittsburgh garrison, was set on fire, with the adjacent buildings, and burned. On July 18 the insurgents sent a deputation of two or three to Pittsburgh, to require of the marshal a surrender of the processes in his possession, and of the in spector the resignation of his office. These de mands were, of course, rejected; but the officers, alarmed for their personal safety, left the town, and, descending the Ohio by boat to Marietta, proceeded by a circuitous route to Philadelphia, and made their report to the United States au thorities.

This was the outbreak of the Western or Whis key Insurrection. The excitement spread rapidly through the western counties. Fayette County was not exempt from it. The collector's house was broken into, and his commission taken from him by armed men; the sheriff refused to serve the writs against the rioters of the spring. Since

THE WHISKEY INSURRECTION 69

these disturbances there had been no trouble in this county. But the malcontents elsewhere rose in arms, riots ensued, and the safety of the whole community was compromised. The news reaching Fayette, the distillers held a meeting at Union- town, the county seat, on July 20. Both Gallatin and Smilie were present, and by their advice it was agreed to submit to the laws. The neighbor ing counties were less fortunate. On July 21 the Washington County committee was summoned to meet at Mingo Creek Meeting-house. On the 23d there was a large assemblage of people, including a number of those who had been concerned in burning the house of the Pittsburgh inspector. James Marshall, the same who opposed the ratifi cation of the federal Constitution, David Brad ford, the "empty drum," and Judge Brackenridge of Pittsburgh, attended this meeting. Bradford, the most unscrupulous of the leaders, sought to shirk his responsibility, but was intimidated by threats, and thereafter did not dare to turn back. Brackenridge was present to counsel the insurgents to moderation. In spite of his efforts the meeting ended in an invitation, which the officers had not the boldness to sign, to the townships of the four western counties of Pennsylvania and the adjoin ing counties of Virginia to send representatives to a general meeting on August 14, at Parkinson's Ferry on the Monongahela, in Washington County. Bradford, determined to aggravate the disturbance, stopped the mail at Greensburg, on the road be-

70 ALBERT GALLATIN

tween Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, and robbed it of the Washington and Pittsburgh letters, some of which he published, to the alarm of their authors. On July 28 a circular signed by Bradford, Marshall, and others was sent out from Cannons- burg to the militia of the county, whom it sum moned for personal service, and likewise called for volunteers to rendezvous the following Wednes day, July 30, at their respective places of meeting, thence to march to Braddock's Field, on the Mo- nongahela, the usual rendezvous of the militia, about eight miles south of Pittsburgh, by two o'clock of Friday, August 1. It closed in these words, "Here is an expedition proposed in which you will have an opportunity for displaying your military talents and of rendering service to your country." Nothing less was contemplated by the more extreme of these men than an attack upon Fort Pitt and the sack of Pittsburgh. Thoroughly aroused at last, the moderate men of Washington determined to breast the storm. A meeting was held; James Koss of the United States Senate made an earnest appeal, and was supported by Scott of the House of Representatives and Stokely of the Senate of Pennsylvania. Marshall and Bradford yielded, and consented to countermand the order of rendezvous. But the excited popula tion poured into the town from all quarters, and Bradford, who found that he had gone too far to retreat, again took the lead of the movement, already beyond restraint.

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There are accounts of this formidable insurrec tion by H. H. Brackenridge and William Findley, eye-witnesses. These supply abundant details. Findley says that he knew that the movement would not stop at the limit apparently set for it. "The opposing one law would lead to oppose an other ; they would finally oppose all, and demand a new modeling of the Constitution, and there would be a revolution." There was great alarm in Pittsburgh. A meeting was held there Thursday evening, July 31, at which a message from the Washington County insurgents was read, violent resolutions adopted, and the 9th of August ap pointed as the day for a town meeting for election of delegates to a general convention of the coun ties at Parkinson's Ferry; Judge Brackenridge of Pittsburgh, a man of education, influence, and infinite jest and humor, was present at this meet ing. Of Scotch-Irish birth himself, his sympa thies of race were with his countrymen, but in political sentiments he was not in harmony with their leaders. They were nearly all Kepublicans, while he had sided with the Federalists in the convention which adopted the new Constitution of the United States. He was a man of peace, and of too much sagacity not to foresee the inevitable ruin upon which they were rushing. At Mingo Creek he had thwarted the plans of immediate revolution. The evident policy of moderate men was to prevent any violence before the convention at Parkinson's Ferry should meet, and to bend all

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their energies to control the deliberations of that body. The people of Pittsburgh were intensely excited by the armed gathering almost at their doors.

Brackenridge felt that the only safe issue from the situation was to take part in and shape the action of that gathering. Under his lead a com mittee from the Pittsburgh meeting, followed by a large body of the citizens, went out to the ren dezvous. Here they found a motley assemblage, arrayed in the picturesque campaign costume which the mountaineers wore when they equipped them selves to meet the Indians, — yellow hunting-shirts, handkerchiefs tied about their heads, and rifles on the shoulder; the militia were on foot, and the light horse of the counties were in military dress. Conspicuous about the field, "haughty and pom pous," as Gallatin described him in the legislature, was David Bradford, who had assumed the office of major-general. Brackenridge draws a lifelike picture of him as, mounted on a superb horse in splendid trappings, arrayed in full uniform, with plume floating in the air and sword drawn, he rode over the ground, gave orders to the military, and harangued the multitude. On the historic ground where Washington plucked his first military lau rels were gathered about seven thousand men, of whom two thousand militia were armed and ac coutred as for a campaign, — a formidable and remarkable assemblage, when it is considered that the entire male population of sixteen years of age

THE WHISKEY INSURRECTION 73

and upwards of the four counties did not exceed sixteen thousand, and was scattered over a wide and unsettled country. This is Brackenridge's estimate of the numbers. Later, Gallatin, on comparison of the best attainable information, es timated the whole body at from fifteen hundred to two thousand men. Whatever violence Bradford may have intended, none was accomplished. That he read aloud the Pittsburgh letters, taken from the mail, shows his purpose to inflame the people to vindictive violence. He was accused by con temporary authorities of imitation of the methods of the French Jacobins, which were fresh examples of revolutionary vigor. But the mass was not persuaded. After desultory conversation and dis cussion, the angry turn of which was at times threatening to the moderate leaders, the meeting broke up on August 2 ; about one third dispersed for their homes, and the remainder, marching to Pittsburgh, paraded through the streets, and finally crossing the river in their turn scattered. They did no damage to the town beyond the burning of a farm belonging to Major Kirkpatrick of the garrison. The taverns were all closed, but the citizens brought whiskey to their doors. Judge Brackenridge reports that his sacrifice to peace on this occasion cost him four barrels of his best old rye.

This moderation was no augury of permanent quiet. Brackenridge, who was a keen observer of men, says of the temper of the western popula-

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tion at this period : " I had seen the spirit which prevailed at the Stamp Act, and at the commence ment of the revolution from the government of Great Britain, but it was by no means so general and so vigorous amongst the common people as the spirit which now existed in the country." Nor did the armed bands all return peaceably to their homes. The house of the collector for Fay- ette and Washington counties was burned, and warnings were given to those who were disposed to submit to the law. The disaffected were called "Tom the tinker" men, from the signature affixed to the threatening notices. From a passage in one of Gallatin's letters it appears that there was a person of that name, a New England man, who had been concerned in Shays 's insurrection. Lib erty poles, with the device, "An equal tax and no excise law," were raised, and the trees pla carded with the old revolutionary motto, "United we stand, divided we fall," with a divided snake as an emblem. Mr. Gallatin's neighborhood was not represented at Braddock's Field, and not more than a dozen were present from the entire county. But now the flame spread there also, and liberty poles were raised. Mr. Gallatin himself, inquir ing as to their significance and expressing to the men engaged the hope that they would not behave like a mob, was asked, in return, if he was not aware of the Westmoreland resplution that any one calling the people a mob should be tarred and feathered, — an amusing example of that mob logic

THE WHISKEY INSURRECTION 75

which proves the affirmative of the proposition it denies.

Mr. Gallatin did not attend the meeting at Braddock's Field. Somewhat isolated at his resi dence at the southerly border of the county, en gaged in the care of his long neglected farm, and in the full enjoyment of release from the bustle and excitement of public life, he had paid little attention to passing events. He was preparing definitively to abandon political pursuits and to follow some kind of mercantile business, or take up some land speculation and study law in his intervals of leisure. It was not a year since he had given hostages to fortune. He was now in the full tide of domestic happiness, which was al ways to him the dearest and most coveted. He might well have hesitated before again engaging upon the dangerous and uncertain task of control ling an excited and aggrieved population. But he did not hesitate.

The people among whom he had made his home, and whose confidence had never failed him, were his people. By them he would stand in their ex tremity, and if hurt or ruin befell them, it should not be for want of the interposition of his counsel. He knew his powers, and he determined to bring them into full play. He knew the danger also, but it only nerved him to confront and master it. He knew his duty, and did not swerve one hair from the line it prompted. In no part of his long, varied, and useful political life does he appear to

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better advantage than in this exciting episode of the Whiskey Insurrection. His self-possession, his cool judgment, swayed neither by timidity nor rashness, never for a moment failed him. Here he displayed that remarkable combination of per suasion and control, — the indispensable equip ment of a political chief, — which, in later days, gave him the leadership of the Republican party. With intuitive perception of the political situation be saw that the only path to safety, beset with difficulty and danger though it were, was through the convention at Parkinson's Ferry. He did not believe that any revolutionary proceedings had yet been taken, or that the convention was an illegal body, but he was determined to separate the wheat from the chaff, and disengage the moderate and the law-abiding from the disorderly. By the light of his own experience he had learned wisdom. He also had drawn a lesson from the French Revolu tion, and knew the uncontrollable nature of large popular assemblages. The news from Philadel phia, the seat of government, was of a kind to increase his alarm. Washington was not the man to overlook such an insult to authority as the re sistance to the marshal and inspector ; nor was it probable that Hamilton would let pass such an occasion for showing the strength and vigor of the government.

Before the meeting at Braddock's Field, the secretary's plans for a suppression of the insurrec tion were matured. On August 2 he laid before

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the President an estimate of the probable armed force of the insurgents, and of that with which he proposed to reduce them to submission. When the question of the use of force came before the cabinet, Edmund Kandolph, who was secretary of state, opposed it in a written opinion, one phrase of which deserves repetition : —

" It is a fact well known that the parties in the United States are highly inflamed against each other, and that there is but one character which keeps both in awe. As soon as the sword shall be drawn, who shall be able to- retain them."

Mifflin, the governor of Pennsylvania, depre cated immediate resort to force; the venerable Chief Justice McKean suggested the sending of commissioners on the part of the federal and state governments. Washington, with perfect judg ment, combined these plans, and happily allied conciliation with force. A proclamation was is sued on August 7 summoning all persons involved in the disturbance to lay down their arms and re pair to their homes by September 1. Requisitions were made upon the governors of Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and New Jersey for fifteen thousand men in all, and a joint commission of five was raised, — three of whom on the part of the United States were appointed by the Presi dent, and two on the part of the State of Pennsyl vania. This news was soon known at Pittsburgh, and rapidly spread through the adjacent country;

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and it was clear that in the proceedings to be taken at Parkinson's Ferry the question of resist ance or submission must be definitively settled. On August 14, 1794, the convention assembled; two hundred and twenty-six delegates in all, of whom ninety -three were from Washington, forty - nine from Westmoreland, forty-three from Alle gheny, thirty-three from Fayette, two from Bed ford, five from Ohio County in Virginia, with spectators to about the same number.

Parkinson's Ferry, later called Williamsport, and now Monongahela City, is on the left bank of the Monongahela, about half way between Pitts burgh and Red Stone Old Fort or Brownsville. Brackenridge pictures the scene with his usual local color : " Our hall was a grove, and we might well be called ' the Mountain ' (an allusion to the radical left of the French convention), for we were on a very lofty ground overlooking the river. We had a gallery of lying timber and stumps, and there were more people collected there than there was of the committee." In full view of the meet ing stood a liberty pole, raised in the morning by the men who signed the Braddock's Field circular order, and it bore the significant motto, "Liberty and no excise and no asylum for cowards." Among the delegates, or the committee, to use their own term, were Bradford, Marshall, Brackenridge, Findley, and Gallatin. Before the meeting was organized, Marshall came to Gallatin and showed him the resolutions which he intended to move,

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intimating at the same time that he wished Mr. Gallatin to act as secretary. Mr. Gallatin told him that he highly disapproved the resolutions, and had come to oppose both him and Bradford, and therefore did not wish to serve. Marshall seemed to waver; but soon the people met, and Edward Cook of Fayette, who had presided at Braddock's Field, was chosen chairman, with Gal latin for secretary. Bradford opened the proceed ings with a summary sketch of the action previ ously taken, declared the purpose of the committee to be to determine on a course of action, and his own views to be the appointment of committees to raise money, purchase arms, enlist volunteers, or draft the militia: in a word, though he did not use it, to levy war.

At this point in the proceedings the arrival of the commissioners from the President was an nounced, but the progress of the meeting was not interrupted. The commissioners were at a house near the meeting, but there were serious objections against holding a conference at this place.

Marshall then moved his resolutions. The first, declaratory of the grievance of carrying citizens great distances for trial, was unanimously agreed to. The second called for a committee of public safety "to call forth the resources of the western country to repel any hostile attempts that may be made against the rights of the citizens, or of the body of the people." Had this resolution been adopted, the people were definitively committed to

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overt rebellion. This brought Mr. Gallatin at once to his feet. He denied that any hostile at tempts against the rights of the people were threat ened, and drew an adroit distinction between the regular army, which had not been called out, and the militia, who were a part of the people them selves ; and to gain time he moved a reference of the resolutions to a committee who should be in structed to wait the action of the government. In the course of his speech Gallatin denied the assertion that resistance to the excise law was legal, or that coercion by the government was necessarily hostile. He was neither supported by his own friends nor opposed by those of Bradford. He stood alone.

But Marshall withdrew his resolution, and a committee of sixty was appointed, with power to summon the people. The only other objectionable resolution was that which pledged the people to the support of the laws, except the excise law and the taking of citizens out of their counties for trial, — an exception which Gallatin succeeded in having stricken out. He then urged the adoption of the resolution, without the exception, as neces sary "to the establishment of the laws and the conservation of the peace," and here he was sup ported by Brackenridge. The entire resolutions were finally referred to a committee of four, — Gallatin, Bradford, Husbands, and Brackenridge. The meeting then adjourned. The next morning a standing committee of sixty was chosen, one

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from each township. From these a committee of twelve was selected to confer with the government commissioners. Upon this committee were Cook, the chairman, Bradford, Marshall, Gallatin, Brack- enridge, and Edgar. The meeting then adjourned.

Upon this representative body there seems to have been no outside pressure. The proclamation of the President, which arrived while it was in session, showed the determination, while the ap pointment of the commission showed the modera tion, of the government. Gallatin availed of each circumstance with consummate adroitness, point ing out to the desperate the folly of resistance, and to the moderate an issue for honorable retreat.

Meanwhile, the commissioners reached Pitts burgh, where on August 20 the committee of con ference was received by them, and an informal un derstanding arrived at, which was put in writing. The laws -were to be enforced with as little incon venience to the people as possible. All criminal suits for indictable offenses were to be dropped, but civil suits were to take their course. Notice was given that a definitive submission must be made by September 1 following. On the 22d the conference committee answered that they must consult with the committee of sixty. Thursday the 28th was appointed for a meeting at Red Stone Old Fort, the very spot where the original resolutions of opposition were passed in 1791. In the report drawn up every member of the twelve, except Bradford, favored submission.

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The hour was critical, the deliberations were in the open air, and under the eyes of a threatening party of seventy riflemen accidentally present from Washington County across the stream. Bradford, who instinctively felt that he had placed himself beyond the pale of pardon, and to whom there was no alternative to revolution but flight, pressed an instant decision and rejection of the written terms of the commissioners. In the presence of personal danger, the conferrees only dared to move that part of their report which advised acceptance of the proffered terms. The question of submis sion they left untouched. An adjournment was obtained. The next day, to quote the words of Brackenridge, "the committee having convened, Gallatin addressed the chair in a speech of some hours. It was a piece of perfect eloquence, and was heard with attention and without disturbance." Never was there a more striking instance of intel lectual control over a popular assemblage. He saved the western counties of Pennsylvania from anarchy and civil war. He was followed by Brack enridge, who, warned by the example of his com panion, or encouraged by the quiet of the assem blage, supported him with vigor. Bradford, on the other hand, faced the issue with directness and savage vehemence. He repelled the idea of sub mission, and insisted upon an independent govern ment and a declaration of war. Edgar of Wash ington rejoined in support of the report. Gallatin now demanded a vote, but the twelve conferrees

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alone supported him. He then proposed an in formal vote, but without result. Finally a secret ballot was proposed by a member. A hat was passed, and when the slips of paper were taken out, there were thirty -four yeas and twenty-three nays. The report was declared to be adopted, and amid the scowls of the armed witnesses the meeting adjourned; not, however, before a new committee of conference had been appointed. On this new committee not one of the old leaders was named. They evidently knew the folly of further delay, or of attempting to secure better terms. As his final act Colonel Cook, the chairman of the standing committee of sixty, indorsed the resolu tion adopted. It declared it to be "to the interest of the people of the country to accede to the pro posals made by the commissioners on the part of the United States." This was duly forwarded, with request for a further conference. The com missioners consented, but declined to postpone the time of taking the sense of the people beyond September 11.

William Findley said of the famous and critical debate at Red Stone : " I had never heard speeches that I more ardently desired to see in print than those delivered on this occasion. They would not only be valuable on account of the oratory and in formation displayed in all the three, and especially in Gallatin's, who opened the way, but they would also have been the best history of the spirit and the mistakes which then actuated men's minds."

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Findley, in his allotment of the honors of the day, considers that "the verbal alterations made by Gallatin saved the question." Brackenridge thought that his own seeming to coincide with Bradford prevented the declaration of war; and he has been credited with having saved the western counties from the horrors of civil war, Pittsburgh from destruction, and the Federal Union from im minent danger.

Historians have agreed in according to Gallatin the honor of this field day. It was left to John C. Hamilton, half a century later, to charge a want of courage upon Gallatin, — a baseless charge.1 Not Malesherbes, the noble advocate defending the accused monarch before the angry French conven tion, with the certainty of the guillotine as the reward of his generosity, is more worthy of admi ration than Gallatin boldly pleading the cause of order within rifle range of an excited band of law less frontiersmen. If, as he confessed later, in his part in the Pittsburgh resolutions he was guilty of "a political sin," he nobly atoned for it under circumstances that would have tried the courage of men bred to danger and to arms. Sin it was, and its consequences were not yet summed up. For although the back of the insurrection was broken at Ked Stone Old Fort, there was much yet to be done before submission could be com pleted.

Bradford attempted to sign, but found that his

1 Hamilton's History of the Republic, vi. 96.

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course at Bed Stone Old Fort had placed him outside the amnesty. Well might the moderate men say in their familiar manner of Scripture allusion, "Dagon is fallen." He fled down the Ohio and Mississippi to Louisiana, then foreign soil. The commissioners waited at Pittsburgh for the signatures of adhesion on September 10, which was the last day allowed by the terms of amnesty. They required that meetings should be held on this day in the several townships; the presiding officers to report the result to commissioner Ross at Uniontown the 16th of the same month, on which day he would set out for Philadelphia. The time was inadequate, but there was no help. Gallatin hastened the submission of Fayette, and a meeting of committees from the several town ships met at the county seat, Uniontown, on Sep tember 10, 1794, when a declaration drawn by Mr. Gallatin was unanimously adopted. A pas sage in this admirable paper shows the compara tive order which prevailed in Fayette County dur ing this period of trouble. It is an appeal to the people of the neighboring counties, who, under the influence of their passions and resentment, might blame those of Fayette for their moderation.

" The only reflection we mean to suggest to them is the disinterestedness of our conduct upon this occasion. The indictable offences to be buried in oblivion were committed amongst them, and almost every civil suit that has been instituted under the revenue law, in the federal court, was commenced against citizens of this

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county. By the terms proposed, the criminal prosecu tions are to be dropped, but no condition could be ob tained for the civil suits. We have been instrumental in obtaining an amnesty, from which those alone who had a share in the riots derive a benefit, and the other inhabitants of the western country have gained nothing for themselves."

This declaration was forwarded on September 17 to Governor Mifflin, with reasons for the delay, and advice that signatures were fast being ob tained, not only in the neighboring counties, but even in Fayette, where this formality had not been thought necessary. It closes with a forcible ap peal to delay the sending of troops until every conciliatory measure should have proved abortive.

But the commissioners, unfortunately, were not favorably impressed with the reception they met with or the scenes they witnessed on their western mission. They had heard of Bradford's threat to establish an independent government west of the mountains, and they had seen a liberty pole raised upon which the people with the greatest difficulty had been dissuaded from hoisting a flag with six stripes — emblematic of the six counties repre sented in the committee. The flag was made, but set aside for the fifteen stripes with reluctance. This is Findley's recollection, but Brackenridge says that it was a flag of seven stars for the four western counties, Bedford, and the two counties of Virginia. This, he adds, was the first and only manifestation among any class of a desire to sepa-

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rate from the Union. But here his memory failed him.

Hamilton had long been impatient. Again, as in old days, he presented his arguments directly to the people. Under the heading, "Tully to the people of the United States," he printed a letter on August 26, of which the following is a pas sage : —

" Your representatives in Congress, pursuant to the commission derived from you, and with a full knowledge of the public exigencies, have laid an excise. At three succeeding sessions they have revised that act . . . and you have actually paid more than a million of dollars on account of it. But the four western counties of Penn sylvania undertake to re judge and reverse your decrees. You have said, ' The Congress shall have power to lay excises' They say, ' The Congress shall not have this power ; ' or, what is equivalent, they shall not exercise it, for a power that may not be exercised is a nullity. Your representatives have said, and four times repeated it, ' An excise on distilled spirits shall be collected ; ' they say, ' It shall not be collected. We will punish, expel, and banish the officers who shall attempt the col lection.' "

The peace commissioners returned to Philadel phia and made their report on September 24. The next day, September 25, Washington issued a proclamation calling out the troops. In it he again warned the insurgents. The militia, already armed, accoutred, and equipped, and awaiting marching orders, moved at once. Governor Mifflin at first

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hesitated about his power to call out the militia, but when the President's requisition was made, he summoned the legislature in special session, and obtained from it a hearty support, with authority to accept volunteers and offer a bounty. Thus fortified, he made a tour through the lower coun ties of the State, and by his extraordinary popular eloquence soon filled up the ranks. The old sol dier led his troops in person. Those of New Jer sey were commanded by their governor, Richard Ho well of Revolutionary fame. These formed the right wing and marched to rendezvous at Bedford to cross the mountains by the northern and Penn sylvania route. The left wing, composed of the Virginia troops, under the veteran Morgan, and those of Maryland, under Samuel Smith, a briga dier-general in the army of the Revolution, assem bled at Cumberland to cross the mountains by Braddock's Road. The chief command was con fided to Governor Henry Lee of Virginia. Wash ington accompanied the army as far as Bedford. Hamilton continued with it to Pittsburgh, which was reached in the last days of October and the first of November, after a wearisome march across the mountains in heavy weather. Arrived in the western counties, the army found no opposition.

Meanwhile, on October 2, the standing commit tee met again at Parkinson's Ferry, and unani mously adopted resolutions declaring the general submission, and explaining the reasons why signa tures to the amnesty had not been general. Find-

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ley and Eedick were appointed to take these reso lutions to the President, and to urge him to stop the march of the troops. They met the left wing at Carlisle. Washington received them courte ously, but did not consent to countermand the march. They hurried back for more unequivocal assurances, which they hoped to be able to carry to meet Washington on his way to review the right wing. On October 14, the day of the autumn elections, general submissions were universally signed, and finally, on October 24, a third and last meeting was held at Parkinson's Ferry, at which a thousand people attended, when, with James Edgar, chairman, and Albert Gallatin, secretary, it was resolved, first, that the civil au thority was fully competent to punish both past and future breaches of the law; secondly, that surrender should be made of all persons charged with offenses, in default of which the committee would aid in bringing them to justice; thirdly, that offices of inspection might be opened, and that the distillers were willing and ready to enter their stills.

These resolutions were published in the "Pitts burgh Gazette." Findley carried them to Bed ford, but before he reached the army the President had returned to Philadelphia. The march of the army was not stopped. The two wings made a junction at Uniontown. Companies of horse were scattered through the country. New submissions were made, and the oath of allegiance, required by General Lee, was generally taken.

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Hamilton now investigated the whole matter of the insurrection, and it was charged against him, and the charge is supported by Findley, with names of persons, that he spared no effort to se cure evidence to bring Gallatin within the pale of an indictment. Of course he failed in this pur pose, if indeed it were ever seriously entertained. But the belief that Gallatin was the arch-fiend, who instigated the Whiskey Insurrection, had already become a settled article in the Federalist creed, and for a quarter of a century, long after the Federalist party had become a tradition of the past, the Genevan was held up to scorn and hatred, as an incarnation of deviltry — an enemy of mankind.

On the 8th of November, Hamilton, who re mained with the army, wrote to the President that General Lee had concluded to take hold of all who are worth the trouble by the military arm, and then to deliver them over to the disposition of the judi ciary. In the mean time, he adds, "all possible means are using to obtain evidence, and accom plices will be turned against the others."

The night of November 18, 1794, was appointed for the arrests; a dreadful night Findley describes it to have been. The night was frosty; at eight o'clock the horse sallied forth, and before daylight arrested in their beds about two hundred men. The New Jersey horse made the seizures in the Mingo Creek settlement, the hot-bed of the insur rection and the scene of the early excesses. The

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prisoners were taken to Pittsburgh, and thence, mounted on horses, and guarded by the Philadel phia Gentlemen Corps, to the capital. Their en trance into Cannonsburg is graphically described by Dr. Carnahan, president of Princeton College, in his account of the insurrection.

" The contrast between the Philadelphia horsemen and the prisoners was the most striking that can be imagined. The Philadelphians were some of the most wealthy and respectable men of that city. Their uni form was blue, of the finest broadcloth. Their horses were large and beautiful, all of a bay color, so nearly alike that it seemed that every two of them would make' a good span of coach horses. Their trappings were su perb. Their bridles, stirrups, and martingales glittered with silver. Their swords, which were drawn, and held elevated in the right hand, gleamed in the rays of the setting sun. The prisoners were also mounted on horses of all shapes, sizes, and colors ; some large, some small, some long tails, some short, some fat, some lean, some every color and form that can be named. Some had saddles, some blankets, some bridles, some halters, some with stirrups, some with none. The riders also were various and grotesque in their appearance. Some were old, some young, some hale, respectable looking men ; others were pale, meagre, and shabbily dressed. Some had great coats, — others had blankets on their shoul ders. The countenance of some was downcast, melan choly, dejected ; that of others, stern, indignant, mani festing that they thought themselves undeserving such treatment. Two Philadelphia horsemen rode in front and then two prisoners, and two horsemen and two

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prisoners, actually throughout a line extending perhaps half a mile. ... If these men had been the ones chiefly guilty of the disturbance, it would have been no more than they deserved. But the guilty had signed the amnesty, or had left the county before the army ap proached."

Dallas, the secretary of state, Gallatin's friend, was one of this troop. Gallatin saw him soon after his return. In a letter to his wife of Decem ber 3, Gallatin relates the experience of the trooper who had little stomach for the work he had to do.

"I saw Dallas yesterday. Poor fellow had a most disagreeable campaign of it. He says the spirits, I call it the madness, of the Philadelphia Gentlemen's Corps was beyond conception before the arrival of the Presi dent. He saw a list (handed about through the army by officers, nay, by a general officer) of the names of those persons who were to be destroyed at all events, and you may easily guess my own was one of the most conspicuous. Being one day at table with sundry officers, and having expressed his opinion that, if the army were going only to support the civil authority, and not to do any military execution, one of them (Dallas did not tell me his name, but I am told it was one Ross of Lancaster, aide-de-camp to Mifflin) half drew a dag ger he wore instead of a sword, and swore any man who uttered such sentiments ought to be dagged. The President, however, on his arrival, and afterwards Hamilton, took uncommon pains to change the senti ments, and at last it became fashionable to adopt, or at least to express, sentiments similar to those inculcated by them."

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Kandolph was, perhaps, not far out of the way in his fear of a civil war should blood be drawn, and in his conviction that the influence of Wash ington was the only sedative for the fevered politi cal pulse. On November 17 general orders were issued for the return of the army, a detachment of twenty-five hundred men only remaining in the West, under command of General Morgan. There were no further disturbances. The army expenses gave a circulating medium, and the farmers, hav ing now the means to pay their taxes, made no further complaints of the excise law. The total expense of the insurrection to the government was 1800,000.

Mr. Gallatin returned with his wife from his western home early in November. He had been again chosen at the October elections to represent Fayette in the Pennsylvania Assembly. More over, at the same time, he was elected to represent the congressional district of Washington and Alle gheny in the House of Representatives of the United States. Of four candidates Gallatin led the poll. Judge Brackenridge was next in order. No better proof is needed of the firm hold Gallatin had in the esteem and affection of the people. No doubt, either, that they understood his principles, and relied upon his sincere attachment to the country he had made his home.

When he appeared to take his seat in the As sembly he found that his election was contested. A petition was presented from thirty-four persons

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calling themselves peaceable citizens of Washing ton County, which stated that their votes had not been cast, because of the disturbed condition of the country, and requested the Assembly to declare the district to have been in a state of insurrection at the time of the election, and to vacate the same. Mr. Gallatin knew the person who procured the signatures, and also that the business originated in the army. It was couched in terms insulting to all the members elect from that district. After a protracted debate the election was declared void on January 9, 1795. It was during this debate that Mr. Gallatin made the celebrated speech called "The speech on the western elections," in which occurs the confession already alluded to. Speaking of the Pittsburgh resolutions of 1792, he said : —

" I might say that those resolutions did not originate at Pittsburgh, as they were almost a transcript of the resolutions adopted at Washington the preceding year ; and I might even add that they were not introduced by me at the meeting. But I wish not to exculpate myself where I feel I have been to blame. The sentiments thus expressed were not illegal or criminal ; yet I will freely acknowledge that they were violent, intemperate, and reprehensible. For, by attempting to render the office contemptible, they tended to dimmish that respect for the execution of the laws which is essential to the maintenance of a free government ; but whilst I feel regret at the remembrance, though no hesitation in this open confession of that my only political sin, let me add that the blame ought to fall where it is deserved."

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This was the first speech of Gallatin that ap peared in print — simple, lucid, convincing. The result of the new Assembly election would natu rally determine the right of the representatives of the contested district to their seats in Congress. Word had gone forth from the Treasury Depart ment that Gallatin must not take his seat in Con gress, and the whippers-in took heed of the desire of their chief. A line of instruction to Badollet, who lived at Green sburg in Washington County, across the river from Gallatin 's residence, deter mined the matter. Gallatin warned him against the attempt that would be made to disaffect that district because none of the representatives whose seats had been vacated were residents of it. "Fall not into the snare," he wrote; "take up nobody from your own district; reelect unanimously the same members, whether they be your favorites or not. It is necessary for the sake of our general character." Here is an instance of that true po litical instinct which made of him "the ideal party leader." His advice was followed, and all the members were reflected but one, who declined. Mr. Gallatin returned to his seat in the Assembly on February 14, and retained it until March 12, when he asked and obtained leave of absence. He does not appear to have taken further part in the session. The subjects, personal to himself, which occupied his attention during the summer will be touched upon elsewhere.

The pitiful business of the trial of the western

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prisoners needs only brief mention. In May Gal- latin was summoned before the grand jury as a wit ness on the part of the government. The inquiry was finished May 12, and twenty-two bills were found for treason. Against Fayette two bills were found ; one for misdemeanor in raising the liberty pole in Uniontown. The petit jury was composed of twelve men from each of the counties of Fayette, Washington, Allegheny, and Northumberland, but none from Westmoreland. One man, a German from Westmoreland, who was concerned in a riot in Fayette, was found guilty and condemned to death. Mr. Gallatin, at the request of the jury, drew a petition to the President, who granted a pardon. Washington extended mercy to the only other offender who incurred the same penalty.

To the close of this national episode, which, in its various phases of incident and character, is of dramatic interest, Gallatin, through good repute and ill repute, stood manfully by his constituents and friends.

CHAPTER V

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THE first session of the fourth Congress began at Philadelphia on Monday, December 7, 1795. Washington was president, John Adams vice- president. No one of Washington's original con stitutional advisers remained in his cabinet. Jef ferson retired from the State Department at the beginning of the first session of the third Congress. Edmund Eandolph, appointed in his place, re signed in a cloud of obloquy on August 19, 1795, and the portfolio was temporarily in charge of Timothy Pickering, secretary of war. Hamilton resigned the department of the Treasury on Janu ary 31, 1795, and Oliver Wolcott, Jr., succeeded him in that most important of the early offices of the government. General Henry Knox, the first secretary of war, pressed by his own private affairs and the interests of a large family, withdrew on December 28, 1794, and Timothy Pickering, the postmaster - general, had been appointed in his stead January 2, 1795. The Navy Department was not as yet established (the act creating it was passed April 30, 1798), but the affairs which con cerned this branch of the public service were under

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the direction of the secretary of war. The admin istration of Washington was drawing to a close. In the lately reconstructed cabinet, honest, patri otic, and thorough in administration, there was no man of shining mark. The Senate was still in the hands of the Federal party. The bare major ity which rejected Gallatin in the previous Con gress had increased to a sufficient strength for party purposes, but neither in the ranks of the administration nor the opposition was there in this august assemblage one commanding figure.

The House was nearly equally divided. The post of speaker was warmly contested. Frederick A. Muhlenberg of Pennsylvania, who had presided over the House at the sessions of the first Con gress, 1789-1791, and again over the third, 1793- 1795, was the candidate of the Federalists, but was defeated by Jonathan Dayton of New Jersey, whose views in the last session had drifted him into sympathy with the Republican opposition. The House, when full, numbered one hundred and five members, among whom were the ablest men in the country, veterans of debate versed in parlia mentary law and skilled in the niceties of party fence. In the Federal ranks, active, conscious of their power, and proud of the great party which gloried in Washington as their chief, were Robert Goodloe Harper of South Carolina, Theodore Sedgwick of Massachusetts, Roger Griswold and Uriah Tracy of Connecticut, who led the front and held the wings of debate; while in reserve,

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broken in health but still in the prime of life, the pride of his party and of the House, was Fisher Ames, the orator of his day, whose magic tones held friend and foe in rapt attention, while he mastered the reason or touched the heart. Upon these men the Federal party relied for the vindica tion of their principles and the maintenance of their power. Supporting them were William Vans Murray of Maryland, Goodrich and Hill- house of Connecticut, William Smith of South Carolina, Sitgreaves of Pennsylvania, and in the ranks a well-trained party. Opposed to this for midable array of Federal talent was the Bepubli- can party, young, vigorous, and in majority, bold in their ideas but as yet hesitating in purpose under the controlling if not overruling influence of the name and popularity of Washington.

Hamilton watched the shifting fortunes of his party from a distance, and found time in the pres sure of a large legal practice to aid each branch of administration in turn with his advice. But though he still inspired its councils, he no longer directed its course. In his Monticello home Jef ferson waited till the fruit was ripe for falling, occasionally impatient that his followers did not more roughly shake the tree.

The open rupture of Jefferson with Hamilton was the first great break in the Federal adminis tration; the lukewarmness of Madison, whose leanings were always towards Jefferson, followed.

At the head of the Kepublican opposition was

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Madison. Wise in council, convincing in argu ment, an able and even adroit debater, he was an admirable leader, but his tactics were rather of the closet than the field. He was wanting in the personal vigor which, scorning defense, delights in bold attack upon the central position of the enemy, and carries opposition to the last limit of parliamentary aggression. With this mildness of character, though recognized as the leader of his party, he, as a habit, waived his control upon the floor of the House, and, reserving his interference for occasions when questions of constitutional in terpretation arose, left the general direction of debate to William B. Giles of Virginia, a skillful tactician and a ready debater, keen, bold, and troubled by no scruples of modesty, respect, or reverence for friend or foe. Of equal vigor, but of more reserve, was John Nicholas of Virginia — a man of strong intellect, reliable temper, and with the dignity of the old school. To these were now added Albert Gallatin and Edward Living ston. Edward Livingston, from New York, was young, and as yet inexperienced in debate, but of remarkable powers. He was another example of that early intellectual maturity which was a char acteristic of the time.

When Congress met, the all-disturbing question was the foreign policy of the United States. The influence of the French Revolution upon American politics was great. The Federalists, conservative in their views, held the new democratic doctrines

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in abhorrence, and used the terrible excesses of the French Revolution with telling force against their Republican adversaries. The need of a strong- go vernment was held up as the only alternative to anarchy. In the struggle which now united Europe against the French republic, the sympa thies of the Federalists were with England. Hence they were accused of a desire to establish a mon archy in the United States, and were ignominiously called the British party. Shays's Rebellion in Massachusetts and the Whiskey Insurrection in Pennsylvania gave point to their arguments.

On the other side was the large and powerful party which, throughout the war in the Continental Congress, under the confederation in the national convention which framed and in the state conven tions which ratified the Constitution, had opposed the tendency to centralization, but had been de feated by the yearning of the body of the plain people for a government strong enough at least to secure them peace at home and protection abroad. This natural craving being satisfied, the old aver sion to class distinctions returned. The dread of an aristocracy, which did not exist even in name, threw many of the supporters of the Constitution into the ranks of its opponents, who were demo crats in name and in fact. The proclamation of the rights of man awoke this latent sentiment, and aroused an intense sympathy for the people of France. This again was strengthened by the memory, still warm, of the services of France in

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the cause of independence. Lafayette, who repre sented the true French republican spirit, and held a place in the affections of the American people second only to that of Washington, was languish ing, a prisoner to the coalition of sovereigns, in an Austrian dungeon.

Jefferson returned from France deeply imbued with the spirit of the French Ke volution. His views were warmly received by his political friends, and the principles of the new school of politics were rapidly spread by an eager band of acolytes, whose ranks were recruited until the feeble oppo sition became a powerful party. Democratic so cieties, organized on the plan of the French Jaco bin clubs, extended French influence, and no doubt were aided in a practical way by Genet, whose recent marriage with the daughter of George Clin ton, the head of the Kepublican party in New York, was an additional link in the bond of alli ance.

During the second session of the third Congress Madison had led the opposition in a mild manner; party lines were not yet strongly defined, and the influence of Washington was paramount. In the interim between its expiration and the meeting of the fourth Congress in December, the country was wildly agitated by the Jay treaty. This document not reaching America until after the adjournment of Congress in March, Washington convened the Senate in extra and secret session on June 1, and the treaty was ratified by barely two thirds

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majority. Imprudently withheld for a time, it was at last made public by Senator Mason of Virginia, one of the ten who voted against its ratification. It disappointed the people, and was denounced as a weak and ignominious surrender of American rights. The merchants of Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Charleston protested against it in public meetings. It was burned, and the Eng lish flag was trailed in the dust before the British minister's house at the capital. Jay was hung in effigy, and Hamilton, who ventured to defend the treaty at a public meeting, was stoned. To add to the popular indignation that the impress ment of American seamen had been ignored in the instrument, came the alarming news that the Brit ish ministry had renewed their order to seize ves sels carrying provisions to France, whither a large part of the American grain crop was destined. On the other hand, Randolph, the secretary of state, had compromised the dignity of his official position in his intercourse with Fauchet, the late French ambassador, whose correspondence with his government, thrown overboard from a French packet, had been fished up by a British man-of- war, and forwarded to Grenville, by whom it was returned to America. Thus petard answered pe tard, and the charge by the Republicans upon the Federalists of taking British gold was returned with interest, and the accusation of receiving bribe money was brought close home to Randolph, if not proved.

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Hard names were not wanting either; Jefferson was ridiculed as a sans-culotte and red-legged Democrat. Nor was Washington spared. He was charged with an assumption of royal airs, with political hypocrisy, arid even with being a public defaulter; a charge which no one dared to father, and which was instantly shown to be false and malicious. It was made by Bache in uThe Au rora," a contemptible sheet after the fashion of "L'Ami du Peuple," Marat's Paris organ.

Such was the temper of the people when the House of Representatives met on December 7, 1795. The speaker, Dayton, was strongly anti- British in feeling. Pie was a family connection of Burr, but there is no reason to suppose that he was under the personal influence of that adroit and unscrupulous partisan. On the 8th President Washington, according to his custom, addressed both houses of Congress. This day for the first time the gallery was thrown open to the public. When the reply of the Senate came up for con sideration, the purpose of the Republicans was at once manifest. They would not consent to the approbation it expressed of the conduct of the administration. They would not admit that the causes of external discord had been extinguished "on terms consistent with our national honor and safety," or indeed extinguished at all, and they would not acknowledge that the efforts of the President to establish the peace, freedom, and prosperity of the country had been "enlightened

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and firm." Nevertheless the address was agreed to by a vote of 14 to 8.

In the House a resolution was moved that a respectful address ought to be presented. The opposition immediately declared itself. Objection was made to an address, and in its stead the ap pointment of a committee to wait personally on the President was moved. The covert intent was apparent through the thin veil of expediency, but the Republicans as a body were unwilling to go this length in discourtesy, and did not support the motion. Only eighteen members voted for it. Messrs. Madison, Sedgwick, and Sitgreaves, the committee to report an address, brought in a draft on the 14th which was ordered to be printed for the use of the members. The next day the work of dissection was begun by an objection to the words "probably unequaled spectacle of national happiness " applied to the country, and the words "undiminished confidence" applied to the Presi dent. The words "probably unequaled " were stricken out without decided opposition by a vote of forty-three to thirty-nine. Opinions were di vided on that subject even in the ranks of the Federalists. The cause of dissatisfaction was the Jay treaty. The address was recommitted with out a division. The next day Madison brought in the address with a modification of the clause objected to. In its new form the "very great share " of Washington's zealous and faithful ser vices in securing the national happiness was ac-

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knowledged. The address thus amended was unan imously adopted. In this encounter nothing was gained by the Republicans. The people would not have endured an open declaration of want of confidence in Washington. But the entering wedge of the new policy was driven. The treaty was to be assailed. It was, however, the pretext, not the cause of the struggle, the real object of which was to extend the powers of the House, and subordi nate the executive to its will. Before beginning the main attack the Republicans developed their general plan in their treatment of secondary issues ; of these the principal was a tightening of the con trol of the House over the Treasury Department.

In this Mr. Gallatin took the lead. His first measure was the appointment of a standing Com mittee of Finance to superintend the general oper ations of this nature, — an efficient aid to the Treasury when there is accord between the admin istration and the House, an annoying censor when the latter is in opposition. This was the beginning of the Ways and Means Committee, which soon became and has since continued to be the most important committee of the House. To it were to be referred all reports from the Treasury De partment, all propositions relating to revenue, and it was to report on the state of the public debt, revenue, and expenditures. The committee was appointed without opposition. It consisted of four teen members, William Smith, Sedgwick, Madi son, Baldwin, Gallatin, Bourne, Gilman, Murray,

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Buck, Gilbert, Isaac Smith, Blount, Patten, and Hillhouse, and represented the strength of both political parties. To this committee the estimates of appropriations for the support of the govern ment for the coming year were referred. The next step was to bring to the knowledge of the House the precise condition of the Treasury. To this end the secretary was called upon to furnish comparative views of the commerce and tonnage of the country for every year from the formation of the department in 1789, with tables of the ex ports and imports, foreign and domestic, separately stated, and with a division of the nationality of the carrying vessels. Later, comparative views were demanded of the receipts and expenditures for each year; the receipts under the heads of Loans, Revenue in its various forms, and others in their several divisions; the expenditures, also, to be classified under the heads of Civil List, For eign Intercourse, Military Establishment, Indian Department, Naval, etc. Finally a call was made for a statement of the annual appropriations and the applications of them by the Treasury. The object of Mr. Gallatin was to establish the ex penses of the government in each department of service on a permanent footing for which annual appropriations should be made, and for any ex traordinary expenditure to insist on a special appro priation for the stated object and none other. By keeping constantly before the House this distinc tion between the permanent fund and temporary

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exigencies, lie accustomed it to take a practical business view of its legislative duties, and the people to understand the principles he endeavored to apply.

In a debate at the beginning of the session, on a bill for establishing trading houses with the In dians, Mr. Gallatin showed his hand by declaring that he would not consent to appropriate any part of the war funds for the scheme ; nor, in view of the need of additional permanent funds for the discharge of the public debt, would he vote for the bill at all, unless there was to be a reduction in the expense of the military establishment; and he would not be diverted from his purpose although Mr. Madison advocated the bill because of its ex tremely benevolent object. The Federal leaders saw clearly to what this doctrine would bring them, and met it in the beginning. The first struggle occurred when the appropriations for the service of 1796 were brought before the House. Beginning with a discussion upon the salaries of the officers of the mint, the debate at once passed to the principle of appropriations. The Federal ists insisted that a discussion of the merits of establishments was not in order when the appropri ations were under consideration; that the House ought not, by withholding appropriations, to de stroy establishments formed by the whole legisla ture, that is, by the Senate and House ; that the House should vote for the appropriations agreeably to the laws already made. This view was sane-

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tioned by practice. Mr. Gallatin immediately opposed this as an alarming and dangerous princi ple. He insisted that there was a certain discre tionary power in the House to appropriate or not to appropriate for any object whatever, whether that object were authorized or not. It was a power vested in the House for the purpose of checking the other branches of government when ever necessary. He claimed that this power was shown in the making of yearly instead of perma nent appropriations for the civil list and military establishments, yet when the House desired to strengthen public credit it had rendered the appro priation for those objects permanent and not yearly. It was, therefore, "contradictory to suppose that the House was bound to do a certain act at the same time that they were exercising the discretion ary power of voting upon it." The debate deter mined nothing, but it is of interest as the first declaration in Congress of the supremacy of the House of Representatives.

The great debate which, from the principles in volved in it as well as the argument and oratory with which they were discussed, made this session of the House famous, was on the treaty with Great Britain. This was the first foreign treaty made since the establishment of the Constitution. The treaty was sent in to the House "for the informa tion of Congress," by the President, on March 1, with notice of its ratification at London in Octo ber. The next day Mr. Edward Livingston moved

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that the President be requested to send in a copy of the instructions to the minister of the United States who negotiated the treaty, together with the correspondence and other documents. A few days later he amended his resolution by adding an exception of such of said papers as any existing negotiations rendered improper to disclose. The Senate in its ratification of the treaty suspended the operation of the clause regulating the trade with the West Indies, on which Great Britain still imposed the old colonial restriction, and recom mended the President to open negotiations on this subject; and in fact such negotiations were in progress. The discussion was opened on the Fed eral side by a request to the gentlemen in favor of the call to give their reasons. Mr. Gallatin sup ported the resolution, and expressed surprise at any objection, considering that the exception of the mover rendered the resolution of itself unex ceptionable. The President had not informed the House of the reasons upon which the treaty was based. If he did not think proper to give the information sought for, he would say so to them. A question might arise whether the House should get at those secrets even if the President refused the request, but that was not the present question. In reply to Mr. Murray, who asserted that the treaty was the supreme law of the land, and that there was no discretionary power in the House except on the question of its constitutionality, Mr. Gallatin said that Congress possessed the power

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of regulating trade, — perhaps the treaty-making power clashed with that, — and concluded by ob serving that the House was the grand inquest of the nation, and that it had the right to call for papers on which to ground an impeachment. At present he did not contemplate an exercise of that right. Mr. Madison said it was now to be decided whether the general power of making trea ties supersedes the powers of the House of Repre sentatives, particularly specified in the Constitu tion, so as to give to the executive all deliberative will and leave the House only an executive and ministerial instrumental agency; and he proposed to amend the resolution so as to read, "except so much of said papers as in his (the President's) judgment it may be inconsistent with the interest of the United States at this time to disclose." But his motion was defeated by a vote of 47 nays to 37 yeas.

The discussion being resumed in committee of the whole, the expressions of opinion were free on both sides, but so moderate that one of the mem bers made comment on the calmness and temper of the discussion. Nicholas said that, if the treaty were not the law of the land, the President should be impeached. But the parts of the treaty into which the President had not the right to enter, he could not make law by proclamation. Swanwick supported the call as one exercised by the House of Commons. On the Federal side, Harper said that the papers were not necessary, and, being

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unnecessary, the demand was an improper and unconstitutional interference with the executive department. If he thought them necessary, he would change the milk and water style of the reso lutions. In that case the House had a right to them and he had no idea of requesting as a favor what should be demanded as a right. Gallatin, he said, had declared that it was a request, but that in case of refusal it might be considered whether demand should not be made, and he charged that when, at the time the motion was made, the question had been asked, what use was to be made of the papers, Gallatin did not and could not reply. Mr. Gallatin answered that whether the House had a discretionary power, or whether it was bound by the instrument, there was no impropriety in calling for the papers. He hoped to have avoided the constitutional question in the motion, but as the gentlemen had come forward on that ground, he had no objection to rest the decision of the constitutional power of Congress on the fate of the present question. He would therefore state that the House had a right to ask for the papers.

The constitutional question being thus squarely introduced, Mr. Gallatin made an elaborate speech, which, from its conciseness in statement, strength of argument, and wealth of citations of authority, was, to say the least, inferior to no other of those drawn out in this memorable struggle. In its course he compared the opinion of those who had opposed the resolution to the saying of an English

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bishop, that the people had nothing to do with the law but to obey it, and likened their conduct to the servile obedience of a Parliament of Paris under the old order of things. He concluded with the hope that the dangerous doctrine, that the representatives of the people have not the right to consult their discretion when about exercising powers delegated by the Constitution, would re ceive its death-blow. Griswold replied in what by common consent was the strongest argument on the Federal side. The call, at first view sim ple, had, he said, become a grave matter. The gist of his objection to it was that the people in their Constitution had made the treaty power para mount to the legislative, and had deposited that power with the President and Senate.

Mr. Madison once more rose to the constitu tional question. He said that, if the passages of the Constitution be taken literally, they must clash. The word supreme^ as applied to treaties, meant as over the state Constitutions, and not over the Constitution and laws of the United States. He supported Mr. Gallatin's view of the congressional power as cooperative with the treaty power. A construction which made the treaty power omnipo tent he thought utterly inadmissible in a consti tution marked throughout with limitations and checks.

Mr. Gallatin again claimed the attention of the House, as the original question of a call for papers had resolved itself into a discussion on the treaty-

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making power. In the treaty of peace of 1783 there were three articles which might be supposed to interfere with the legislative powers of the several States : 1st, that which related to the pay ment of debts; 2d, the provision for no future confiscations; 3d, the restitution of estates al ready confiscated. The first could not be denied. "Those," he said, "might be branded with the epithet of disorganizers, who threatened a dissolu tion of the Union in case the measures they dic tated were not obeyed; and he knew, although he did not ascribe it to any member of the House, that men high in office and reputation had indus triously spread an alarm that the Union would be dissolved if the present motion was carried." He took the ground that a treaty is not valid, and does not bind the nation as such, till it has re ceived the sanction of the House of Representa tives. Mr. Harper closed the argument on the Federal side. On March 24 the resolution calling for the papers was carried by a vote of yeas 62, nays 37, absent 5, the speaker 1 (105). Living ston and Gallatin were appointed to present the request to the President.

On March 30 the President returned answer to the effect that he considered it a dangerous prece dent to admit this right in the House; that the assent of the House was not necessary to the va lidity of a treaty ; and he absolutely refused com pliance with the request. The letter of instruc tions to Jay would bear the closest examination,

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but the cabinet scorned to take shelter behind it, and it was on their recommendation that the Presi dent's refusal was explicit. This message, in spite of the opposition of the Federalists, was referred, by a vote of 55 yeas to 37 nays, to the committee of the whole. This reference involved debate. In his opposition to this motion, Mr. Harper said that the motives of the friends of the resolution had been avowed by the "gentleman who led the business, from Pennsylvania ; " whereby it appears that Mr. Gallatin led the Republicans in the first debate. During this his first session he shared this distinction with Mr. Madison. At the next he became the acknowledged leader of the Republican party.

On April 3 the debate was resumed. This second debate was led by Mr. Madison, who con sidered two points : 1st, the application for papers ; 2d, the constitutional rights of Congress. His argument was of course calm and dispassionate after his usual manner. The contest ended on April 7, with the adoption of two resolutions : 1st, that the power of making treaties is exclusively with the President and Senate, and the House do not claim an agency in making them, or ratifying them when made; 2d, that when made a treaty must depend for the execution of its stipulations on a law or laws to be passed by Congress; and the House have a right to deliberate and deter mine the expediency or inexpediency of carrying treaties into effect. These resolutions were carried by a vote of 63 to 27.

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There was now a truce of a few days. In the meanwhile the country was agitated to an extent which, if words mean anything, really threatened an attempt at dissolution of the Union, if not civil war itself. The objections on the part of the Re publicans were to the treaty as a whole. Their sympathies were with France in her struggle for liberty and democratic institutions and against England, and their real and proper ground of antipathy to the instrument lay in its concession of the right of capture of French property in American vessels, whilst the treaty with France forbade her to seize British property in American vessels. The objections in detail had been formu lated at the Boston public meeting the year before. The commercial cities were disturbed by the inter ference with the carrying trade; the entire coast, by the search of vessels and the impressment of seamen; the agricultural regions, by the closing of the outlet for their surplus product; the upland districts, by the stoppage of the export of timber. But the country was without a navy, was ill pre pared for war, and the security of the frontier was involved in the restoration of the posts still held by the British.

The political situation was uncertain if not ab solutely menacing. The threats of disunion were by no means vague. The Pendleton Society in Virginia had passed secession resolutions, and a similar disposition appeared in other States. While the treaty was condemned in the United

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States, British statesmen were not of one opinion as to the advantages they had gained by Gren- ville's diplomacy. Jay's desire, expressed to Ran dolph, "to manage so that in case of wars our people should be united and those of England di vided," was not wholly disappointed. And there is on record the expression of Lord Sheffield, when he heard of the rupture in 1812, "We have now a complete opportunity of getting rid of that most impolitic treaty of 1794, when Lord Grenville was so perfectly duped by Jay."1 Washington's ratification of the treaty went far to correct the hasty judgment of the people, and to reconcile them to it as a choice of evils. Supported by this modified tone of public opinion, the Federalists determined to press the necessary appropriation bills for carrying the treaties into effect. Besides the Jay treaty there were also before the House the Wayne treaty with the Indians, the Pinckney treaty with Spain, and the treaty with Algiers. With these three the House was entirely content, and the country was impatient for their immediate operation. Wayne's treaty satisfied the inhabi tants on the frontier. The settlers along the Ohio, among whom was Gallatin's constituency, were eager to avail themselves of the privileges granted by that of Pinckney, which was a triumph of di plomacy; and all America, while ready to beard the British lion, seems to have been in terror of

1 Lord Sheffield to Mr. Abbott, November 6, 1812. Corre spondence of Lord Colchester , ii. 409.

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the Dey of Algiers. Mr. Sedgwick offered a resolution providing for the execution of the four treaties. Mr. Gallatin insisted on and received a separate consideration of each. That with Great Britain was reserved till the rest were disposed of. It was taken up on April 14. Mr. Madison opened the debate. He objected to the treaty as wanting in real reciprocity; 2d, in insufficiency of its provisions as to the rights of neutrals ; 3d, be cause of its commercial restrictions. Other Re publican leaders followed, making strong points of the position in which the treaty placed the United States with regard to France, to whom it was bound by a treaty of commercial alliance, which was a part of the contract of aid in the Revolutionary War; and also of the possible in justice which would befall American claimants in the British courts of admiralty.

The Federalists clung to their ground, defended the treaty as the best attainable, and held up as the alternative a war, for which the refusal of the Republicans to support the military establishment and build up a navy left the country unprepared. In justice to Jay, his significant words to Ran dolph, while doubtful of success in his negotiation, should be remembered: "Let us hope for the best and prepare for the worst." To the red flag which the Federalists held up, Mr. Gallatin replied, ac cepting the consequences of war if it should come, and gave voice to the extreme dissatisfaction of the Virginia radicals with Jay and the negotiation.

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He charged that the cry of war and threats of a dissolution of the government were designed for an impression on the timidity of the House. "It was through the fear of being involved in a war that the negotiation with Great Britain had origi nated; under the impression of fear the treaty had been negotiated and signed; a fear of the same danger, that of war, had promoted its ratification ; and now every imaginary mischief which could alarm our fears was conjured up in order to de prive us of that discretion which this House thought they had a right to exercise, and in order to force us to carry the treaty into effect." He insisted on the important principle that ' free ships make free goods,' and complained of its abandonment by the negotiators.

In a reply to this attack upon Jay, whose whole life was a refutation of the charge of personal or moral timidity, Mr. Tracy passed the limits of parliamentary courtesy. "The people," he said, "where he was most acquainted, whatever might be the character of other parts of the Union, were not of the stamp to cry hosannah to-day and cru cify to-morrow; they will not dance around a whiskey pole to-day and curse their government, and upon hearing of a military force sneak into a swamp. No," said he, "my immediate constitu ents, whom I very well know, understand their rights and will defend them, and if they find the government will not protect them, they will at tempt at least to protect themselves; " and he con-

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eluded, "I cannot be thankful to that gentleman for coming all the way from Geneva to give Ameri cans a character for pusillanimity." He held it madness to suppose that if the treaty were defeated war could be avoided. Called to order, he said that he might have been too personal, and asked pardon of the gentleman and of the House.

The brilliant crown of the debate was the im passioned speech of Fisher Ames, the impression of which upon the House and the crowded gallery is one of the traditions of American oratory. The scene, as it has been handed down to us, resembles, in all save its close, that which Parliament presented when Chatham made his last and dying appeal. Like the great earl, Ames rose pale and trembling from illness to address a House angry and divided. Defending himself and the Federal party against the charge of being in English interest, he said, "Britain has no influence, and can have none. She has enough — and God forbid she ever should have more. France, possessed of popular enthu siasm, of party attachments, has had and still has too much influence on our politics, — any foreign influence is too much and ought to be destroyed. I detest the man and disdain the spirit that can ever bend to a mean subserviency to the views of any nation. It is enough to be American. That character comprehends our duties and ought to engross our attachments." Considering the prob able influence on the Indian tribes of the rejection of the treaty, he said, "By rejecting the Posts we

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light the savage fires, we bind the victims. . . . I can fancy that I listen to the yells of savage vengeance and shrieks of torture. Already they seem to sigh in the west wind, — already they mingle with every echo from the mountains." His closing words again bring Chatham to mind. "Yet I have perhaps as little personal interest in the event as any one here. There is, I believe, no member who will not think his chance to be a witness of the consequences greater than mine. If, however, the vote should pass to reject, and a spirit should rise, as rise it will, with the public disorders to make confusion worse confounded, even I, slender and almost broken as my hold upon life is, may outlive the government and Con stitution of my country." This appeal, supported by the petitions and letters which poured in upon the House, left no doubt of the result. An ad journment was carried, but the speech was deci sive. The next day, April 29, it was resolved to be expedient to make the necessary appropriations to carry the treaty into effect. The vote stood 49 ayes to 49 nays, and was decided in the affirmative by Muhlenberg, who was in the chair. But the House would not be satisfied without an expres sion of condemnation of the instrument. On April 30 it was resolved that in the opinion of the House the treaty was objectionable.

While Mr. Gallatin in this debate rose to the highest rank of statesmanship, he showed an equal mastery of other important subjects which engaged

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the attention of the House during the session. He was earnest for the protection of the frontier, but had no good opinion of the Indians. "Twelve years had passed," he said, "since the peace of 1783; ever since that time he had lived on the frontier of Pennsylvania. Not a year of this pe riod had passed, whether at war or peace, that some murders had not been committed by the Indians, and yet not an act of invasion or provocation by the inhabitants." In the matter of impressment of American seamen, he urged the lodging of sufficient power in the executive. Men had been impressed, and he held it to be the duty of the House to take notice of it by war or negotiation. In the establishment of land offices for the sale of the western lands he brought to bear upon legisla tion his practical experience. He urged that the tracts for sale be divided, and distinctions be made between large purchasers and actual settlers — proposing that the large tracts be sold at the seat of government, and the small on the territory it self. He instanced the fact that in 1792 all the land west of the Ohio was disposed of at Is. Qd. the acre, and a week afterwards was resold at 81.50, so that the money which should have gone into the treasury went to the pockets of specula tors. He also suggested that the proceeds of the sales should be a fund to pay the public debt, and that the public stock should always T^e received at its value in payment for land; a plan by which the land would be brought directly to the payment

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of the debt, as foreigners would gladly exchange the money obligations of the government for land. On the question of taxation he declared himself in favor of direct taxes, and held that a tax on houses and lands could be levied without difficulty. He would satisfy the people that it was to pay off the public debt, which he held to be a public curse. He supported the excise duty on stills under regu lations which would avoid the watching of persons and houses and inspection by officers, and proposed that licenses be granted for the time applied for.

The military establishment he opposed in every way, attacked the principle on which it was based, and fought every appropriation in detail, from the pay of a major-general to the cost of uniforms for the private soldiers. He was not afraid of the army, he said, but did not think that it was neces sary for the support of the government or danger ous to the liberties of the people ; moreover, it cost six hundred thousand dollars a year, which was a sum of consequence in the condition 'of the finances.

The navy found no more favor in his eyes. He denied that fleets were necessary to protect com merce. He challenged its friends to show, from the history of any nation in Europe as from our own, that commerce and the navy had gone hand in hand. There was no nation except Great Brit ain, he said, whose navy had any connection with commerce. Navies were instruments of power more calculated to annoy the trade of other nations

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than to protect that of the nations to which they belonged. The price England had paid for her navy was a debt of three hundred millions of pounds sterling. He opposed appropriations even for the three frigates, United States, Constitution, and Constellation, — the construction of which had been ordered, — the germs of that navy which was later to set his theory at naught, redeem the honor of the flag, protect our commerce, and release the country and the civilized world from ignominious tribute to the Mediterranean pirates, who were propitiated in this very session only at the cost of a million of dollars to the Treasury of the United States, and by the gift of a frigate.

In the debate over the payment of the sum of five millions, which the United States Bank had demanded from the government, the greatest part of which had been advanced on account of appro priations, he lamented the necessity, but urged the liquidation. This was the occasion of another personal encounter. In reply to a charge of Gal- latin that the Federalists were in favor of debt, Sedgwick alluded to Gallatin's part in the Whis key Insurrection, and said that none of those gentlemen whom Gallatin had charged with "an object to perpetuate and increase the public debt " had been known to have combined " in every mea sure which might obstruct the operation of law," nor had declared to the world "that the men who would accept of the offices to perform the neces sary functions of government were lost to every

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sense of virtue; " "that from them was to be with held every comfort of life which depended on those duties which as men and fellow-citizens we owe to each other. If," he said, "the gentlemen had been guilty of such nefarious practices, there would have been a sound foundation for the charge brought against them." Gallatin made no reply. This was the one political sin he had acknowledged. His silence was his expiation.

The Treasury Department and its control, past and present, was the object of his unceasing criti cism. In April, 1796, he said, "The situation of the gentleman at the head of the department [Wolcott] was doubtless delicate and unpleasant; it was the more so when compared with that of his predecessor [Hamilton]. Both indeed had the same power to borrow money when necessary; but that power, which was efficient in the hands of the late secretary and liberally enough used by him, was become useless at present. He wished the present secretary to be extricated from his present difficulty. Nothing could be more painful than to be at the head of that department with an empty treasury, a revenue inadequate to the expenses, and no means to borrow." Nevertheless he feared that if it were declared that the payment of the debt incurred by themselves were to be postponed till the present generation were over, it might well be expected that the principle thus adopted by them would be cherished, that succeeding legislatures and administrations would follow in their steps,

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and that they were laying the foundations of that national curse, — a growing and perpetual debt.

On the last day of the session W. Smith had challenged the correctness of Gallatin's charge that there had been an increase of the public debt by five millions under the present administration, and claimed that there were errors in Gallatin's statement of more than four and a half millions. Gallatin defended his figures. At this day it is impossible to determine the merits of this dispute.

One incident of this session deserves mention as showing the distaste of Gallatin for anything like personal compliment, stimulated in this instance, perhaps, by his sense of Washington's dislike to himself. It had been the habit of the House since the commencement of the government to adjourn for a time on February 22, Washington's birth day, that members might pay their respects to the President. When the motion was made that the House adjourn for half an hour, the Kepublicans objected, and Gallatin, nothing loath to "bell the cat," moved that the words "half an hour" be struck out. His amendment was lost without a division. The motion to adjourn was then put and lost by a vote of 50 nays to 38 ayes. The House waited on the President at the close of the business of the day. On June 1 closed this long and memorable session, in which the assaults of the Kepublicans upon the administration were so persistent and embarrassing as to justify Wol- cott's private note to Hamilton, April 29, 1796,

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that "unless a radical change of opinion can be effected in the Southern States, the existing estab lishments will not last eighteen months. The in fluence of Messrs. Gallatin, Madison, and Jeffer son must be diminished, or the public affairs will be brought to a stand." Here is found an early recognition of the political "triumvirate," and Gallatin is the first named.

Gallatin seems to have had some doubts as to his reelection to Congress. As he did not reside in the Washington and Allegheny district, his name was not mentioned as a candidate, and, to use his own words, he expected to "be gently dropped without the parade of a resignation." In his distaste at separation from his wife, the desire to abandon public life grew upon him. But per sonal abuse of him in the newspapers exasperating his friends, he was taken up again in October, and he arrived on the scene, he says, too late to prevent it. He had no hope, however, of success, and was resolved to resign a seat to which he was in every way indifferent. "Ambition, love of power," he wrote to his wife on October 16, he had never felt, and he added, if vanity ever made one of the ingredients which impelled him to take an active part in public life, it had for many years altogether vanished away. He was nevertheless reflected by the district he had represented.

The second session of the fourth Congress began on December 5, 1796. At the beginning of this

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session Mr. Gallatin took the reins of the Kepub- lican party, and held them till its close. The position of the Federalists had been strengthened before the country by the energy of Washington, who, impatient of the delays which Great Britain opposed to the evacuation of the posts, marched troops to the frontier and obtained their surrender. Adet, the new French minister, had dashed the feeling of attachment for France by his impudent notice to the President that the dissatisfaction of France would last until the executive of the United States should return to sentiments and measures more conformable to the interests and friendships of the two nations. In September Washington issued his Farewell Address, in which he gave the famous warning against foreign complications, which, approved by the country, has since re mained its policy; but neither the prospect of his final withdrawal from the political and official field, nor the advice of Jefferson to moderate their zeal, availed to calm the bitterness of the ultra Eepublicans in the House.

The struggle over the answer to the President's message, which Fisher Ames on this occasion re ported, was again renewed. An effort was made to strike out the passages complimentary to Wash ington and expressing regret at his approaching retirement. Giles, who made the motion, went so far as to say that he 'wished him to retire, and that this was the moment for his retirement, that the government could do very well without him,

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and that he would enjoy more happiness in his retirement than he possibly could in his present situation. ' For his part he did not consider Wash ington's administration either "wise or firm," as the address said. Gallatin made a distinction be- tween the administration and the legislature, and in lieu of the words, wise, firm, and patriotic ad ministration, proposed to address the compliment directly to the wisdom, firmness, and patriotism of Washington. But Ames defended his report, and it was adopted by a vote of 67 to 12. Gallatin voted with the majority, but Livingston, Giles, and Macon held out with the small band of disaffected, among whom it is amusing also to find Andrew Jackson, who took his seat at this Congress to re present Tennessee, which had been admitted as a State at the last session.1

The indebtedness of the States to the general government, in the old balance sheet, on the pay ment of which Gallatin insisted, was a subject of difference between the Senate and the House. Gallatin was appointed chairman of the committee of conference on the part of the House. The re duction of the military establishment, which he wished to bring down to the footing of 1792, was again insisted upon. Gallatin here ingeniously

1 Gallatin later described Jackson as he first saw him in his seat in the House: "A tall, lank, uncouth looking1 individual, with long locks of hair hanging over his brows and face, while a queue hung down his back tied in an eelskin. The dress of this indi vidual was singular, his manners and deportment that of a back woodsman." Bartlett's Reminiscences of Gallatin.

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argued against the necessity for the number of men proposed, that it was a mere matter of opinion, and if it was a matter of opinion, it was not strictly necessary, because if necessary it was no longer a matter of opinion. Naval appropriations were also opposed, on the ground that a navy was prejudicial to commerce. Taxation, direct and indirect, and compensation to public officers were also subjects of debate at this session. On the subject of appro priations, general or special, he was uncompromis ing. He charged upon the Treasury Department that notwithstanding the distribution of the ap propriations they thought themselves at liberty to take money from an item where there was a sur plus and apply it to another where it was wanted. To check such irregularity, he secured the passage of a resolution ordering that "the several sums shall be solely applied to the objects for which they are respectively appropriated," and tacked it to the appropriation bill. The Senate added an amend ment removing the restriction, but Gallatin and Nicholas insisting on its retention, the House sup ported them by a vote of 52 to 36, and the Senate receded.

Notwithstanding the apparent enthusiasm of the House in the early part of the session, when the tricolor of France, a present from the French gov ernment to the United States, was sent by Wash ington to Congress, to be deposited with the ar chives of the nation, French influence was on the wane. The common sense of the country got the

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better of its passion. In the reaction the Feder alists regained the popular favor for a season.

Whatever latent sympathy the French people may have had for America as the nation which set the example of resistance to arbitrary rule, the French government certainly was moved by no enthusiasm for abstract rights. Its only object was to check the power of their ancient enemy, and deprive it of its empire beyond, the seas. Never theless, France did contribute materially to Ameri can success. The American government and peo ple acknowledged the value of her assistance, and, in spite of the prejudices of race, there was a strong bond of sympathy between the two nations ; and when, in her turn, France, in 1789, threw off the feudal yoke, she expected and she received the sympathy of America. Beyond this the govern ment and the people of the United States could not and would not go. The position of France in the winter of 1796-97 was peculiar. She was at war with the two most formidable powers of Eu rope, — Austria and England, the one the mistress of Central Europe, the other supreme ruler of the seas. The United States was the only maritime power which could be opposed to Great Britain. The French government determined to secure American aid by persuasion, if possible, otherwise by threat. The Directory indiscreetly appealed from the American government to the American people, forgetting that in representative govern ments these are one. Nor was the precedent cited

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in defense of this unusual proceeding — namely, the appeal of the American colonists to the people of England, Ireland, and Canada to take part in the struggle against the British government — pertinent; for that was an appeal to sufferers under a common yoke.

The enthusiasm awakened in France by the dra matic reception of the American flag, presented by Monroe to the French Convention, was somewhat dampened by the cooler manner with which Con gress received the tricolor, and was entirely dashed by the moderation of the reply of the House to Washington's message. The consent of the House to the appropriations to carry out the Jay Treaty decided the French Directory to suspend diplo matic relations with the United States. The mar velous successes of Bonaparte in Italy over the Austrian army encouraged Barras to bolder mea sures. The Directory not only refused to receive Charles C. Pinckney, the new American minis ter, but gave him formal notice to retire from French territory, and even threatened him with subjection to police jurisdiction. In view of this alarming situation, President Adams convened Congress.

The first session of the fifth Congress began at Philadelphia on Monday, May 15, 1797. Jona than Dayton was reflected speaker of the House . Some new men now appeared on the field of na tional debate : Samuel Sewall and Harrison Gray Otis from Massachusetts, James A. Bayard from

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Delaware, and John Rutledge, Jr., from South Carolina. Madison and Fisher Ames did not re turn, and their loss was serious to their respective parties. Madison was incontestably the finest reasoning power, and Ames, as an orator, had no equal in our history until Webster appeared to dwarf all other fame beside his matchless elo quence. Parties were nicely balanced, the nomi nal majority being on the Federal side. Harper and Griswold retained the lead of the administra tion party. Giles still led the Eepublican opposi tion, but Gallatin was its main stay, always ready, always informed, and already known to be in the confidence of Jefferson, its moving spirit. The President's message was, as usual, the touchstone of party. The debate upon it unmasked opinions. It was to all intents a war message, since it asked provision for war. The action of France left no alternative. The Republicans recognized this as well as the Federalists. They must either respond heartily to the appeal of the executive to maintain the national honor, or come under the charge they had brought against the Federalists of sympathy with an enemy. At first they sought a middle ground. Admitting that the rejection of our min ister and the manner of it, if followed by a refusal of all negotiation on the subject of mutual com- plaints, would put an end to every friendly relation between the two countries, they still hoped that it was only a suspension of diplomatic intercourse. Hence, in response to the assurance in the message

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that an attempt at negotiation would first be made, Nicholas moved an amendment in this vein. The Federalists opposed all interference with the exec utive, but the Republicans took advantage of the debate to clear themselves of any taint of unpatri otic motives in their semi-opposition. The Fed eralists, repudiating the charge of British influence, held up Genet to condemnation, as making an appeal to the people, Fauchet as fomenting an in surrection, and Adet as insulting the government. The Eepublicans retorted upon them Grenville's proposition to Mr. Pinckney, to support the Amer ican government against the dangerous Jacobin factions which sought to overturn it. Gallatin de precated bringing the conduct of foreign relations into debate, and hoped that the majority