shield provided by the Constitution to protect the rights of the Executive, the Judiciary, and the States against invasions of the Legislature, he added that, unless the President's mind was tolerably clear that the Bill was unauthorised by the Constitution, "a just respect for the wisdom of the Legislature" would naturally decide the balance in favour of the Bill passed by Congress. Washington eventually signed the Bill. The Bank almost immediately paid a dividend of ten per cent on six months working, and another impetus was given to the stockjobbing mania. But in March, 1792, so Jefferson wrote to Short, Bank paper stock had fallen about forty per cent in two or three weeks, and "this nefarious business" was becoming more and more detestable to the public.

This controversy over the Bank helped to accentuate the lines of party cleavage. The party of Hamilton admired the British government and British institutions. Their distrust of the French Revolution was developing into aversion and horror. The party of Jefferson disliked the British monarchy and aristocracy, and rejoiced that the French Revolution was setting up republican equality and liberty in Europe. The party of Hamilton favoured a strong and active government, was not averse to debt, and had no objection to increasing taxation. It was prepared, as it soon showed, to put sharp constraints upon individual liberty and to make unsparing use of military force. Jefferson and his friends stood for State rights and the liberty of the individual, for low taxes, and for an army on the smallest possible scale. In Jefferson's eyes militarism was not only burdensome to the citizens, but dangerous to the supremacy of law. To these divisions, which in themselves were quite sufficient to provide an honest foundation for a two-party system - indeed it

were to be wished that some modern party differences were half as real - the Federalists and Republicans were now at issue about the construction of the Constitution. The former, fearful of disunion, inclined to a liberal construction which would enlarge the Federal authority; their opponents, mainly from the Southern States, preferred a more strict and literal interpretation which would keep the new government to the letter of its charter, and secure their rights and powers to the several States of the Union.

CHAPTER IV

JEFFERSON'S FOREIGN POLICY

"Courage belongs to negotiation as well as to operations in the field."

N°

- BURKE

OWADAYS a Foreign Secretary is encompassed by permanent secretaries, private secretaries, assistant secretaries, clerks, and shorthand writers. Jefferson did his own work, wrote his own despatches, thought out his reports, and employed his knowledge of European diplomacy

'to settle peace, or to unfold

The drift of hollow states hard to be spelled.'

He enjoyed the confidence of Washington, and so far as one can judge from correspondence and memoirs, he steadily resisted those temptations to secrecy which have been the bane of so many European Chancelleries. Neither Washington nor his colleagues in the Cabinet ever had cause to complain that Jefferson had practised any evasion, or failed to bring forward any matter of public importance. With all the art and craft of an accomplished diplomatist, with fine manners and address, with immense knowledge of the world and of all the news that could be collected, Jefferson united perfect loyalty to the President, to the spirit of representative institutions and to the citizens of the United States, whose servant he professed and endeavoured to be. His policy in so far as it had a bias was influenced by fidelity to republicanism, friendship for

France, and a desire to promote human liberty and free institutions whenever those high aims were consistent with the peace and welfare of his own country. He was a jealous champion of American rights and interests on the Continent, and especially in the Mississippi Valley. His policy towards the Indians was based upon principles of justice and fair dealing. His conduct of delicate affairs with unfriendly governments was always tactful and prudent. He knew how to maintain the dignity of his country and to sustain its interests without provocation. In every controversy he maintained a sense of proportion and of the distinction between attainable and unattainable objects. All his negotiations were qualified by a firm conviction that peace was the greatest of all American in

terests.

Towards the claims of the Spaniards to monopolise the navigation of the Mississippi Jefferson however opposed an unyielding negative. In these claims he never would acquiesce. His negotiations with the Spanish Government went on until he left office, nor was this vexed question settled until, ten years later, President Jefferson by a stroke of genius effected the purchase of Louisiana.

Of his controversy with Great Britain and its able representative Hammond over the debts, an account has been given in the previous chapter.

But the proclamation of the French Republic in September, 1792, the execution of the King in the following January, and the outbreak of war between France and England a month later, threw all other troubles and anxieties into the background. These menacing events made it difficult for Jefferson to persist in his intention of retiring. The President's expostulations and entreaties were supported by a consideration pressed on him by his

friends so he wrote on January 26, 1793-"that my retirement, when I had been attacked in the public papers, would injure me in the eyes of the public, who would suppose I either withdrew from investigation, or because I had not tone of mind sufficient to meet slander."

In February he promised the President to continue until the summer or autumn, but rejected the proposal that he should 'coalesce' with Hamilton. Early in April came the news that the French, after their ambassador had been expelled from London, had declared war on Great Britain. Republicanism was now arrayed against monarchy, nobility, feudalism, and serfdom. It called on all peoples to unite against their oppressors and vindicate the Rights of Man. The Jacobins of Paris supposed that, because among the middle class dissenters and working men of England there was a strong body of reformers, therefore England was ripe for revolution. They were much mistaken. The excesses of the last eight months had alarmed property and alienated moral and religious feeling in England. The nation, pugnacious, obstinate, attached to its own customs and institutions, was far more inclined to make war on its hereditary foe than to receive French notions of liberty, equality, and fraternity from doctrinaires, whose mathematical formulas were sharpened and enforced by the guillotine. So began the long exhausting struggle which sank all Europe into pauperism and dominated American politics for the next twenty-three years.

In the United States the proclamation of a Republic in France had been received with almost general rejoicings. Their own example had been followed by the allies to whom they owed their national emancipation. Pride and gratitude were united in an emotional enthusiasm, which