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etc., I shall now remove, as my prede-
cessor ought in justice to have done.
The instances will be few, and governed
by strict rule, and not party passion.
The right of opinion shall suffer no
invasion from me. Those who have
acted well have nothing to fear, how-
ever they may have differed from me
in opinion: those who have done ill,
however, have nothing to hope; nor
shall I fail to do justice lest it should be
ascribed to that difference of opinion."
In another letter, he writes to Levi
Lincoln: "We are proceeding gradu-
ally in the regeneration of offices, and
introducing republicans to some share
in them. I do not know that it will
be pushed further than was settled be-
fore you went away, except as to Essex
men. I must ask you to make out a
list of those in office in yours and the
neighboring states, and to furnish me
with it.
I understand that
Jackson is a very determined one,
though in private life amiable and hon-
orable. But amiable monarchists are
not safe subjects of republican
confidence. What will be the
effect of his removal? How should it
be timed? Who his successor? What
place can General Lyman properly oc-
cupy?"

1801.

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ever have been deemed sufficient to interdict half the society from the rights and the blessings of self-government, to proscribe them as unworthy of every trust. It would have been to me a circumstance of great relief, had I found a moderate participation of office in the hands of the majority. I would gladly have left to time and accident, to raise them to their just share. But their total exclusion calls for prompter corrections. I shall correct the procedure; but that done, return with joy to that state of things, when the only question concerning a candidate shall be, Is he honest? Is he capable? Is he faithful to the Constitution?"

1801.

The judges recently appointed under the new judiciary act, (see vol. ii., p. 513,) were, as we have seen above, marked by Jefferson for removal. "Between the 13th of February and the 4th of March," says the author of the "Familiar Letters," "all the judges were appointed by Mr. Adams, and the commissions issued. The individuals selected for these offices were men of high standing, and worthy of all confidence. But the popular cry was set up, and the measure vehemently condemned by all the Jeffersonian party. The judges were called 'the To the "bitter remonstrance" of the midnight judges of John Adams,' in almerchants of New Haven, who felt it lusion to the supposed time of appointhard that an effective officer, of unsul- ment, at the close of his official duties. lied character, should be displaced in He said that he regarded (though one behalf of an old man, who was so dim- can hardly credit that he did so) all Mr. sighted that he could scarcely sign his Adamss appointments after the 14th own name, Jefferson replied at length. of February, while the House of Rep One paragraph contains the follow-resentatives were balloting for presiing:-"I lament sincerely that unes-dent,) as absolutely void. This must sential differences of opinion should be understood to mean, that though

CH. I.]

ANSWER TO MACON'S QUERIES.

Mr. Adams was constitutionally president up to the midnight hour of the 3d of March; yet he ought to have submitted his will to that of his successor, and should have refrained from carrying an act of Congress into effect, which might not conform to that will. On the same principle, Mr. Jefferson withheld the commissions of certain magistrates, whom Mr. Adams had appointed, in the District of Columbia. The commissions were made out and ready for delivery, but Mr. Jefferson ordered them to be suppressed. 1801. One of these magistrates, Mr. Marbury, applied to the Supreme Court for a writ of mandamus to Mr. Madison, the new secretary of state, to deliver his commission. But after an able investigation of constitutional law, the court did not grant the motion. Mr. Jefferson found a commission, duly made out and signed by Mr. Adams, appointing a gentleman district judge in Rhode Island; this commission he suppressed, and appointed one 'in whom he could confide.""

Under date of May 14th, Nathaniel Macon, of North Carolina, obtained from the president, the following answers to some queries of his, in respect of certain matters not touched upon in the Inaugural Address.

"Levees are done away with.

"The first communication to the next Congress will be, like all subsequent ones, by message, to which no answer will be expected.

"The diplomatic establishment in Europe will be reduced to three ministers. "The compensation to collectors depends on you, and not on me.

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"The army is undergoing a chaste reformation.

"The navy will be reduced to the legal establishment by the last of this month.

"Agencies in every department will be revised.

"We shall push you to the uttermost in economizing.

"A very early recommendation had been given to the postmaster-general to employ no printer, foreigner, or revolutionary tory, in any of his offices. This department is still untouched.

"The arrival of Mr. Gallatin, yesterday, completed the organization of our administration."

One of the first acts of Jefferson's administration was, to send Mr. Dawson, a member of Congress, as a special messenger to France, with the treaty lately concluded with that nation, duly ratified, (see vol. ii., p. 504.) He took occasion at the same time, under date of March 18th, to send to the notorious Thomas Paine, "assurances of his high esteem, and affectionate attachment," and to offer to this "reviler both of General Washington and of the Christian religion," a passage home in the United States sloop of war Maryland. As might have been expected, the opposition availed itself of this conduct of the president to bestow upon him some sharp and bitter censure.* In this letter to Paine, the president also stated, that he had appointed Robert R. Liv

1801.

*For the letter to Paine, and Mr. Tuckers remarks upon Jefferson's conduct, see "Life of Jefferson," vol. ii., pp. 94-96.

ingston, chancellor of New York, minister-plenipotentiary to France. He

was not, however, to take his departure from the United States until intelligence should be received of the ratification of the Convention. Livingston, we may here mention, sailed for France in the autumn of the present year.

brought no good to it. Yussuf accordingly charged the American govern ment with unfairness, in bestowing upon him no more than some paltry gra tuities, whilst Tunis had so much more, and Algiers had even received a frigate. And he told the consul that he would wait for six months for a present in money, and if it did not arrive by that time, would declare war against the United States. He was as good as his word too; for no money having come by the day he had designated, on May the 14th, 1801, the flag-staff of the American consulate was cut down, and the declaration of war was fully made. "Thus our concessions to one nest of pirates, in 1795, preferred as an alter

the six frigates that had been conditionally authorized by the act of Congress of the year before, to impose by force of arms, our own terms, naturally provoked and encouraged the cupidity and insolence of another."

The party which had just taken the reins of power, had, as we have seen, no great love for the navy; and in accordance with Mr. Jefferson's wishes, a law had been passed for its reduction, the sale and dismantling of the ships, etc. The impudent demand, however, of the pasha of Tripoli, forced the president to avail himself of the naval arm; and accordingly, in May, Commodore Dale was ordered to the Med-native to completing and sending out iterranean with a squadron of three frigates, and a sloop of war, to act as occasion might require. It appears, that Yussuf Caramalli, pasha of Tripoli, having dispossessed his brother Hamet, held that dependency of the Porte; and hearing, in 1800, of the gifts made to Algiers and Tunis, resolved to have his full share of the spoils of the rising nation, and to number amongst his tributaries also, the youthful Republic of the west. Just at this time, too, the other Barbary states were in a very quarrelsome mood with America. Algiers complained that the tribute was in arrear. Tunis found fault with the quality of the goods sent; certain planks and oars were too short; and guns of a particular description were greatly wanted. Morocco also had intimated a general disgust at the increasing marine of the new naval power, which had as yet

1801.

Commodore Dale arrived at Gibraltar on the 1st of July, and found the Tripolitan admiral lying in the harbor with a frigate of twenty-six and a brig of sixteen guns. Notwithstanding the admiral's assurances of peace, Dale thought it best to leave one of his ships to watch them. Another vessel he sent along the northern shore to act as convoy to the American trade; and with the other two appearing before Algiers and Tunis, allayed most of the resentment affected by those powers, by the mere sight of his broadside. Soon afterwards the little Enterprise, a twelve-gun schooner, under command of Lieutenant Sterrett

Cu. I.]

JEFFERSON'S CABINET ARRANGEMENTS.

making for Malta, fell in with a polacre-rigged Tripolitan ship of fourteen guns, and in a running combat of three hours, which was twice renewed by the pirates after they had struck, completely disabled her, killing or wounding fifty of her crew, without the loss of a single man. The instructions of the American commander not permitting him to carry the vessel in, he proceeded to dismantle her. "Her armament was thrown overboard, and she was stripped of every thing but one old sail and a single spar that were left to enable her to reach port. After attending to the wounded, (the whole crew was but eighty, and only thirty were found living after the fight,) the prize was abandoned, and it is understood that a long time elapsed before she got in. When her unfortunate Rais appeared in Tripoli, even his wounds did not avail him. He was placed on a jackass, paraded through the streets, and received the bastinado." It will readily be conceived, that the Tripolitan pirates had little encouragement to meet American vessels of war in future; and we find that, from this date, they entertained a very salutary terror of those who were as able as they were willing to give their enemies such effectual castigation.*

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dered perfectly useless to the pasha, and although the dey solicited passports for their crews, his request was denied. At the end of November, in accordance with his instructions, the gallant commodore returned, with his own ship and the Enterprise, leaving the Philadelphia and the Essex to look after the interests of the Union in that quarter. |

Dale did not maintain a very rigid blockade, but kept a most vigilant watch against the attacks of Tunis and Algiers as well; visiting various ports, and convoying the merchantmen of the United States whenever requisite. The two Tripolitans at Gibraltar were ren

* See "Cooper's Naval History," vol. i., p. 200.

1801.

On the 6th of November, the president addressed a circular to the heads of the departments, in which was unfolded his plan of proceeding; and sketching the practice of Washington's administration, in contrast with that of John Adams, he signified his purpose of acting upon his former chief's scheme, until experience should suggest any improvements. Professing his "unlimited, unqualified, and unabated" confidence in his ministers, not one of whom could he change to his better satisfaction, "if he had the universe to choose from;" he distinctly disavowed his intention of suffering the government to be "parcelled out," แ among four independent heads," as in his opinion, had been the case with his immediate predecessor. It will be seen, as we proceed, that Thomas Jefferson was as good as his word in regard to these matters.

The seventh Congress commenced its session, in the city of Washington, on Monday, the 7th of December. Both in the Senate and in the House, the democratic party had a clear working majority, and accordingly, Abraham Baldwin was elected president pro tempore of the Senate, and Nathaniel Macon, speaker of the House. Bayard,

the federalist candidate for speaker, re-fication to me, that on meeting the ceived only twenty-six votes; not half those which were given for Macon.

great council of our nation, I am able to announce to them, on grounds of reasonable certainty, that the wars and troubles which have for so many years afflicted our sister nations have at length come to an end, and that the communications of peace and commerce are once more opening among them. While we devoutly return thanks to the beneficent Being who has been pleased to breathe into them the spirit of conciliation and forgiveness, we are bound with peculiar gratitude to be thankful to him that our own peace has been preserved through so perilous a season, and ourselves permitted quietly to cultivate the earth and to practise and improve those arts which tend to increase our comforts. The assurances, indeed, of friendly disposition, received from "It is a circumstance of sincere grati- all the powers with whom we have

Jefferson, as we have seen above, determined to adopt a different mode of communicating with Congress from that adopted by Washington and Adams. He thought the speeches and answers of the two Houses, savored too much of the forms of royalty; and so he prepared a message instead of a speech, which he sent with an explanatory letter, to the president of the Senate and the speaker of the House. This plan, we may mention, has been followed by Jefferson's successors.* The message was in the following

terms.

"Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives :

* "It was one of Mr. Jefferson's reforms. The former way of assembling the two Houses to hear an address in person from the president, returning an answer to it, the two Houses going in form to present their answer, and the intervention of repeated committees to arrange the details of these ceremonious meetings, being considered too close an imitation of the royal mode of opening a British parliament. of the democratic friends of Mr. Jefferson doubted whether this change was a reform in that part of it which dispensed with the answer to the president. Their view of it was, that the answer to the speech or message, afforded a regular occasion for speaking to the state of the Union, and to all the topics presented; which speaking, losing its regular vent, would after

Some

wards break out irregularly, in the discussion of par

ticular measures, and to the interruption of the business on hand. Experience has developed that irregularity and another-that of speaking to the message, on the motions to refer particular clauses of it to appropriate committees; thereby delaying the reference;

and in one instance, during Mr. Fillmore's administra

tion, preventing the reference during the entire session." Benton's "Abridgement of the Debates of Congress," vol. ii., p. 541.

principal relations, had inspired a confidence that our peace with them would not have been disturbed. But a cessation of the irregularities which had af fected the commerce of neutral nations, and of the irritations and injuries produced by them, cannot but add to this confidence; and strengthens, at the same time, the hope, that wrongs com mitted on unoffending friends, under a pressure of circumstances, will now be reviewed with candor, and will be considered as founding just claims of retribution for the past and new assurance for the future.

"Among our Indian neighbors, also, a spirit of peace and friendship generally prevails; and I am happy to inform you that the continued efforts to introduce among them the implements and

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