that Hamilton was to be chosen for the mission. A member of the House of Representatives addressed a strong letter to the President, deprecating the mission, but especially the reputed choice of the envoy. James Monroe, also, at that time a member of the Senate, remonstrated against the nomination of Hamilton, as injurious to the public interest, and to the interest of Washington himself, and offered to explain his reasons to the latter in a private interview. Washington declined the interview, but requested Mr. Monroe, if possessed of any facts which would disqualify Mr. Hamilton for the mission, to communicate them to him in writing. "Colonel Hamilton and others have been mentioned," adds he, "but no one is yet absolutely decided upon in my mind. But as much will depend, among other things, upon the abilities of the person sent, and his knowledge of the affairs of this country, and as I alone am responsible for a proper nomination, it certainly behooves me to name such a one as, in my judgment, combines the requisites for a mission so peculiarly interesting to the peace and happiness of this country." Hamilton, however, aware of the "collateral obstacles" which existed with respect to himself, had resolved to advise Washington to drop him from the consideration, and to fix upon another character; and recommended John Jay, the Chief-justice of the United States, as the man whom it would be advisable to send. "I think," writes he, "the business would have the best chance possible in his hands, and I flatter myself that his mission would issue in a man. ner that would produce the most important good to the nation." * * Hamilton's Works, vol. iv., p. 531. Mr. Jay was the person ultimately chosen. Washington, in his message, thus nominating an additional envoy to Great Britain, expressed undiminished confidence in the minister actually in London. "But a mission like this," observes he, "while it corresponds with the solemnity of the occasion, will announce to the world a solicitude for a friendly adjustment of our complaints and a reluctance to hostility. Going immediately from the United States, such an envoy will carry with him a full knowledge of the existing temper and sensibility of our country, and will thus be taught to vindicate our rights with firmness, and to cultivate peace with sincerity." The nomination was approved by a majority of ten Senators. By this sudden and decisive measure Washington sought to stay the precipitate impulses of public passion; to give time to put the country into a complete state of defense, and to provide such other measures as might be necessary if negotiation, in a reasonable time, should prove unsuccessful.* Notwithstanding the nomination of the envoy, the resolution to cut off all intercourse with Great Britain passed the House of Representatives, and was only lost in the Senate by the casting vote of the Vice-President, which was given, according to general belief, "not from a disinclination to the ulterior expedience of the measure, but from a desire," previously, "to try the effect of negotiation." While Washington was thus endeavoring to steer the vessel of State amid the surges and blasts which were threatening on every side, Jefferson, who had hauled out of the Letter to Edmund Randolph. Writings, x. 403. storm, writes serenely from his retirement at Monticello, to his friend Tench Coxe, at Paris: "Your letters give a comfortable view of French affairs, and later events seem to confirm it. Over the foreign powers I am convinced they will triumph completely, and I cannot but hope that that triumph, and the consequent disgrace of the invading tyrants, is destined, in order of events, to kindle the wrath of Europe against those who have dared to embroil them in such wickedness, and to bring, at length, kings, nobles and priests to the scaffolds which they have been so long deluging with human blood. I am still warm whenever I think of these scoundrels, though I do it as seldom as I can, preferring infinitely to contemplate the tranquil growth of my lucerne and potatoes. I have so completely withdrawn myself from these spectacles of usurpation and misrule, that I do not take a single newspaper, nor read one a month; and I feel myself infinitely the happier for it.”* CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE James Monroe appointed Minister to France in place of Gouverneur Morris recalled-His Reception-Pennsylvania InsurrectionProclamation of Washington-Perseverance of the Insurgents -Second Proclamation-The President proceeds against them -General Morgan--Lawrence Lewis-Washington arranges a Plan of Military Operations-Returns to Philadelphia, leaving Lee in Command-Submission of the Insurgents-The President's Letter on the Subject to Jay, Minister at London THE French government having so promptly complied with the wishes of the American government in recalling * Works, iv. 104. |